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]Of all the things to complain about the English language, you pick.........articles?

[/quote]
Most ESL people complain about articles in English. Yet, is there a need for them? If you pause and think about it without being defensive, what is really gained by the use of articles? Sure, it sounds right, but useless to the meaning.[/quote]

Pretty much everyone learning a foreign language has something to complain about. Why are nouns gendered in German? Why are nouns and adjectives declined in Russian? Why are "he", "she", and "it" pronounced the same in Mandarin? Why do you always have to use subject pronouns in French, but not Spanish? Why does English have so many verb conjugations and Japanese so few? Why does word order vary so much between languages? I find the differences fascinating, and there is a reason languages are the way they are. It gives you insight into the culture and history.

In Italian, to say "my", you either use "il mio", "la mia", or "i miei", depending on the quantity and gender. You could drop the "il", "la", and "i" and be completely understandable, but it is not good Italian. I'm sure that if I knew what the op's first language was, I could find something else that is "useless" or "illogical". So what?[/quote]

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