The Good Article: Part One

Clearly, he's comfortable enough with articles that he can concentrate on getting other bits completely wrong.

Welcome back, fellow questers. As noted elsewhere, it’s taken me a little longer than expected to finish this, the first proper part of our first anniversary series on English articles. This is because I have discovered that it’s hard to present this information in a way that is wholly relevant to us as translators and editors. Being a fundamental part of the language, it’s more generally applicable to language learners and users of all stripes than just us. There are also some aspects that are specific to spokenEnglish, and these also sometimes depend on regional accent or whether it’s British or American English we’re using (such as some Americans saying erbal instead of herbal).

On that point, and in the interests of a) actually finishing these posts, b) not completely screwing everything up beyond all recognition and c) being as clear as possible, there are some things I probably won’t mention (such as the difference between spacemeaning cosmos (no article) and spacemeaning the void between my ears (articles ahoy). Anything you think is missing, shout at me and I’ll try to cover it in a subsequent post.

Because of this fight for relevance, I will ask you not to be put-off if some of the examples and explanations seem very generic, or somehow beneath you. I have tried to re-dress some things to look more like what you’d typically find in your translating work, but I hope that if the concepts get through to you in a fresh, diligent way and stay there, it matters not that they were delivered by dogs chasing balls rather than EU commissions and businessmen signing contracts. I hope. (Reaches for the Lubuski).

Okay so, let’s press on. We’re going to start with the most basic basics possible, and over the course of the series, progress gradually through to the ultra-hardcore, XXX whips-and-chains material. (So expect us to finish in about 2016 ;).

These are the core rules about using a, anand the that we should all know. Let’s lay them out here in black and white (or reddish-brown and beige):

1. a is for words that begin with consonants
2. an is for words that begin with vowels
3.a is for things we are speaking of for the first time
4. theis for things which we have previously mentioned
5.a, an and the are also used to specify more detail within the same thought
6. the is for things which are very obvious
7. the is for things which are unique
8. a can be used for indicating frequency

1. a is for words that begin with consonants
- a panel of experts, a credit note, a big bottle of gin.

2. an is for words that begin with vowels
- an arts grant, an occasional inspection, anearlier attempt at the record.

3. a is for things we are speaking of for the first time
- The material underwent controlled cryopreservation at a temperature of -180°C.
- The council vetoed further development until a fresh inquiry was conducted.

4. the is for things which we have previously mentioned
- A translator and a proofreader walk into a pub. The translator hung up her coat and sat down. The proofreader went to the bar. The pub exploded.

The previously mentioned things can be anywhere in the preceding sentence, few sentences or paragraph. If they came much earlier in the text as a whole, then hopefully the writer will have re-introduced the concept specifically, rather than just dropping it in out of nowhere and forcing the reader to stop reading and think about where they first saw it. Sometimes this is the work of a moment, other times it requires flicking back through the whole thing and re-reading that part again. Some students and academics tend to be bad about this because they’ve lived so closely with their ideas for so long, that they just assume everyone else knows what they’re talking about at all times.

5. a,an and the are also used to specify more detail within the same thought
- The Eiffel Tower is a famous landmark in Paris.
- The Atlantic Ocean is enormous, and very deep. It is a mysterious ocean.
- The planet Earth is our planet. It is a populous one.

This may actually be the best advice I can give you on the subject of correct article usage.
I know I keep repeating it to myself every time I look back over what I've written here.

6. the is for things which are very obvious

By ‘very obvious’, usually what we mean is that something is immediately apparent to all participants of the conversation – and so this is a very talky article rule. Of course, the things we see and hear in real life translate to context in a written form. If each document we work on is its own room, then Article 4 of this contract works the same way as a chair or a light switch in the room we’re working in together. Right? Before it gets any more Philip K. Dick, the examples:

- Can you pass me the telephone please? (i.e. the telephone on your desk, under your nose, that I’m pointing at with my out-stretched arm. Yes, that one!)

- Hello, taxi driver? I’d like to go to the airport please. (i.e. the single, solitary airport in this whole stupid city, not the one 500 km away in the next city).

- I’d like to speak to the manager please (i.e. the manager of this shop that we are standing in right now, not the manager of the Las Vegas bleeding Hilton).

- I went to theSheryl Crow concert last night, it was awesome. (i.e. the Sheryl Crow concert that was at our local sports stadium 12-14 hours ago here, in this very town, that was advertised all over the place for at least four months in advance. That one).

Something that is obvious can be obvious to everyone, or just the parties involved. Compare:
- Could you stop at the shops on your way home tonight and get some milk? (your local or usual shops).
- Could you stop at a shop on your way home tonight and get some milk? (any old shop).

This obviousness is also implied in many cases:
- Aga is feeling depressed. She’s gone to theshrink’s office. (even though you don’t know Aga, I’m telling you with the use of this definite article that this is her usual shrink).
- Aga is still depressed. She’s gone to theoff-license. (again, this is her usual offy. I hope she remembers the chipsy this time).
- Aga is no longer depressed. She’s sleeping with the fish! (the fish in the river in our city. No chipsy then, damnit).

7. the is for things which are unique
- Whilst in Paris, you should definitely go and see the Eiffel Tower.
- The Atlantic Ocean holds many mysteries.
- This piece on articles will be done by the end of the day

- On your way home today, could you stop by the bank and deposit these cheques for me, please? (i.e. the bank where we always go, because it’s our bank and we’ve had accounts there for 20 years).

- I was in thegarage this morning, tidying up, and I found a pile of old magazines you might like. (i.e. the garage attached to our house, with our car in it, that oh for God’s sake, you know which one I mean).

8. a can be used for indicating frequency
- How often do you do that? About once aweek/twice a day/three times a year.
- The exhibition contains multimedia elements that are changed twice a day.

Note: once a week sounds better than once every week and twice a day can alternatively be expressed as twice daily (this is the usual phrasing in medical texts, on medicine packaging etc). Of course, one also has weekly, daily, monthly, hourly and annually etc, but generally these are not used in the present or past perfects when talking about oneself.

Phew! Okay guys, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. We’ll camp here a while until the next part reveals itself. Any questions, the email address is up there, our Facebook page is over there (I expect it to explode with debate about this post, so get over there while the Internet still works), and there’s probably a wall nearby somewhere too. One last thing to note: when in future I drop new examples of articles and so on in the future, I will refer to them by the numbering system and/or the descriptions we’ve started here. Also, next week the numbered list will carry on from where we left off, so eventually we can look at things and say, ‘Oh that’s a number 9, that should be a 14’ and so on and so forth. Dobrze? No spoko. Hip-flask time!