let me ask you about the article usage

[Anonymous]

First of all, Nice to meet you all. I'm not that good at English so even if I make some grammar mistakes, please excuse my poor English.

I've been learning English for almost 10 years but I didn't study hard so I still have a problem with grammar. What's been kiiling me lately is the article usage. I was so annoyed by it that I've been reading a lot of grammar books but I'm still confused. this article usage is driving me to the point that i want to kill myself


for example
He was unparalleled amongst his peers, and his life was seemingly heading down the road of greatness with rumors that he was set to sign with Roc-A-Fella Records

In this sentence, I think that the word rumors is modified by the sentence that he was set to sign with Rpc-A-Fella Records but there is no the before the word rumors. what if I say "....the rumors that he was set...." am I wrong? Is it because this was the first time the word rumor had been mentioned so there are no the?

I don't wanna killmyself for the article usage Thanks in advance [/b]

 

[Tdol]

The rumors- specific rumors.
Rumors- not specific

The lack of article implies, to me, that these rumors are rather vague and unattributable. ;-)

 

[MikeNewYork]

First of all, Nice to meet you all. I'm not that good at English so even if I make some grammar mistakes, please excuse my poor English.

I've been learning English for almost 10 years but I didn't study hard so I still have a problem with grammar. What's been kiiling me lately is the article usage. I was so annoyed by it that I've been reading a lot of grammar books but I'm still confused. this article usage is driving me to the point that i want to kill myself


for example
He was unparalleled amongst his peers, and his life was seemingly heading down the road of greatness with rumors that he was set to sign with Roc-A-Fella Records

In this sentence, I think that the word rumors is modified by the sentence that he was set to sign with Rpc-A-Fella Records but there is no the before the word rumors. what if I say "....the rumors that he was set...." am I wrong? Is it because this was the first time the word rumor had been mentioned so there are no the?

I don't wanna killmyself for the article usage Thanks in advance [/b]

Don't do anything drastic. Articles represent one of the toughest areas of English to master. So much fuss over tiny words that have little meaning!

Any rules that we give you for the uses of "a", "an, and "the", have exceptions, but you should try to understand the general concepts. With singular nouns we have "a" for general items and "the" for specific items. With plural nouns, we usually use The" for specific items and no article for general ones.

Watch out for cars on the highway. (cars in general)
Did you see the cars in the parking lot. (specific cars)

I saw deer in the park. (deer in general)
Did you see the deer that were roaming through the neighborhood? (specific deer)

 

[Sang]

Thank you for teaching me

tdol and MikeNewYork Thank you a lot for responding to my question and enlightening me.

I've been trying hard to understand the article usage perfectly because I was sick and tired of my wrong usage of a, an and the. but maybe because I'm Korean, it's still hard for me to understand, I'll try even harder. I hope practice will make me better.

I memorized the rules of article usage. but when I read news articles or columns on the net or write something to improve my English, especially general concepts and words which are modified by other sentecnce or words make me confused.

one more question, the word rumor in that sentence had a general meaning. ok I understand that now, what I wanna know is that is it ok for me to understand that there were rumors but the rumors were all about that he was about to signed to Rocafella Rcords? no other rumors for example, he was stabbed, he was not from the city that he was repping or he had a ghostwriter. just for example.

Thank you again for taking your time to teaching me.

 

[RonBee]

Re: Thank you for teaching me

One more question, the word rumor in that sentence had a general meaning. ok I understand that now, what I wanna know is that is it ok for me to understand that there were rumors but the rumors were all about that he was about to [be] signed to Rocafella Rcords?

Yes, that's fine.

 

[Sang]

Thank you RonBee for correcting my mistake and teaching me.

*bows down *
*leave with a big smile on my face*

 

[RonBee]

You're quite welcome.

 

[wanttolearn]

yeh exactly the comes when you are talking about any particular thing