Greg Neumann wrote:
Kazunari Hirano wrote:
Hi Charles, Greg and Ian,
Thank you very much.
:)
Japanese language doesn't have the articles you have.
I knew the official name of the US:
The United States of America.
But I didn't know the official name of the UK:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
It's long ;)
Ian-san, I think you explain it better than any linguist.
"the" appears first to show its a single entity
I see now. I see why "the" is called "definite article."
"the" defines something. It points to a specific thing. It makes the
thing very clear.
Thank you again.
khirano
Japanese has no definate article?
Neither does Latin. The ancient Greeks and Romans used to sneer at each
other over the issue.
Wow. Languages are very interesting. I
mentioned this to my daughter's friend who, is an exchange student from
Sweden about this. She said Swedish doesn't have a definate article
either, but that the word ending changes.
The more usual explanation is that the ending /is/ the definite article.
Also, independent definite articles are used before adjectives modifying
nouns.
det svénska fólket -- the Swedish people
The "det" and the final "-et" are /both/ necessary to translate the
English "the".
--
John W. Kennedy
"I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of
ignorant people is too dangerous to live in."
-- Garson Kanin. "Born Yesterday"
