Reply to Articles are completely useless in the English language, grammar police where are you to weigh in?

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Reply to "Articles are completely useless in the English language, grammar police where are you to weigh in?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s not absolutely necessary to have articles in English. It’s just that I language has them and so they have meeting and we use them. They’re useful for adding a little bit more clarity to a sentence or a situation.

You know what else we have an English that we don’t have absolutely need? Synonyms. We have the word drinkable which means the exact same thing as potable. In German they just have one word: trinkbar. In French they just have one word: potable. But in English we have both. 
[/quote]

The amazing thing about English is the "synonyms"!! They add so much nuance and complexity. So for the examples you used. I would say that the red wine I had at dinner was "perfectly drinkable." That means it was a decent wine but nothing special. I woudn't use "potable" in that case. I would reserve that for water that wasn't going to give me diarrhea. [/quote]

Right -- we happen to have synonyms in English so we use them, and it adds a little element of style.  But it isn't necessary.  Other languages would translate them exactly the same.  [/quote]

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