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Hi Ardith, long time no talk!

On 28.12.24 23:42:35, you wrote:

 GH>>  Again, as you may surmise, using articles is tricky.
 AH> Yes, I`ve noticed over the years that my Russian correspondents 
 AH> tend to have difficulty with articles in English. Based on what 
 AH> little I understand of the Russian language I figure I`d have a 
 AH> very similar problem there.... :-)

Absolutely! Articles as a concept are non-existent in some languages,
and for many learners it's quite hard to get their mind around them.
Language and mentality barriers do exist, unfortunately. Things do get
lost in translation. I believe it may not be as bad for us English
tutees as for you English speakers who, for whatever reason, would want
to start learning Russian just to make a terrifying discovery of nearly 
70 various inflection forms (AFAIK) they'd have to learn, or memorize.

 AH> I probably own more dictionaries & refer to them more often than 
 AH> a lot of other people do. I`d like to think I help my readers use 
 AH> them more efficiently 
 AH> ... but you may not have been here long enough to notice I say on 
 AH> occasion "Did you continue reading as far as definition #12, 
 AH> where I found the answer?" :-))

Dictionaries are indispensable, I have nothing against them whatsoever
:-) In our case, as far as the subject is concerned, is it correct to
assume that a countable noun may be allowed to exist in the story
without an article attached to it? Or, on the other hand, a "strictly"
uncountable noun may be used with the indef. article in a number of
cases? It seems one can't tell by simply looking it up in a dictionary.

 AH> If you want to see & hear native speakers saying "would of never" 
 AH> in our local news or some advertiser telling you the XYZ Company 
 AH> is best qualified to update your windows because they are "real 
 AH> perfessionals" it certainly does. I don`t rely on these sources 
 AH> for examples of good English usage...

Would of never... Well, I've had my share of those, and Could-of-been's
too, reading various posts on forums/boards back in the day. I even
remember asking somewhere, "I wonder if this could be a contemporary
acceptable form of writing it?" :-)

As with that XYZ company, maybe they're just good average IT
professionals, not perfectionists? That is, if you mean "Windows" the
OS, I assume, not windows in the house. (Are those even "updatable"?)

We have to admit, not any source is reliable in this regard. And as a
side note, I've been listening to a great song earlier today, and it's
titled "Shoulda": "I shoulda let go... bla-bla... etc." (It's British
BTW).

 GH>> In our case I`d say it`s an "object vs. substance" thing.
 AH> (which any dictionary I`d give house room to will probably tell
 AH> you)

Nice one! :-) "...give house room to" is not about "a room in the
house", but "room" as in "Make room!", right? House room = house space.

 AH> If you know how how to find material such as the above, I`m most
 AH> grateful. :-)

Search engines now make it easier than ever, that's for sure. Some of
us are just sleeping on such an opportunity.

 AH> ... to you I`d say something more like "You`ve never heard of 
 AH> Hadrian`s Wall?" :-Q

I think I haven't until just now, but Hadrian is/was a proper noun
(thus no articles needed)? Anyway, given its present condition,
shouldn't it be more aptly termed "The leftovers of Hadrian's Wall"?


-- 
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 
 eighteen." -- Albert Einstein
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