drat, meant to send this to the list: > --- Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote: > > On Fri, 14 Jan 2005, lazarus wrote: > > > On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 10:08:24 -0500, you wrote: > > > >lazarus writ: > > > >> ...and why so many bloody articles? > > > >You could always try Russian, which has none. > > > FHow do they manage that? > > It isn't so bad, is it? Consider what you wrote, and what I'm writing, > > and what you responded to. Look, ma, no articles! > > Well, they're always trying to figure ours out. We have trouble with the way > French articles. "J'aime l'art", literally "I love the art", for English "I > love art." Of course, the French not only have more articles than we do -- > masculine/feminine x singular/plural definite, and masc/fem indefinite -- but > they have more than THEY realize they do: in effect, plural and non-count > indefinite articles! > > un ami = a friend (masc) > une amie = "" (f) > des amis = friends > > du lait = milk, some milk (masc) > de la pluie = rain, some rain (fem) > > > -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, > Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody > a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com