Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Gleb Hlebov:

Just look in the Longman dictionary - it says
bluntly- 'wall is a countable noun.

Okay. I seldom refer to it, unless my Free Dictionary cites it... but although I have some concerns about whether this is a British or American source nowadays I understand why you may find it helpful. I can usually determine from how a word is defined whether it's countable, uncountable, or both.

Your original question pertained to an example in which you saw "solid wall" used without an article. It's not quite enough to set off the alarm bells in my head, and I do find it growing on me... but judging by the responses I see here I'd probably tend to follow my mother's advice: "If in doubt, don't." :-Q

The Great Chinese wall is "wall" or "a wall" if
I approach to it?

/since "approach" means "come near to", this "to" is unnecessary

According to my dictionaries "if" = a preposition used in conditional sentences or clauses, in which case the verb tenses may not be quite what you're accustomed to seeing elsewhere. I'd call this object the Great Wall of China... but I understand what you mean. I reckon what matters here is that there may be other large walls (such as Hadrian's Wall & the Berlin Wall) which are important from a historical & geographical standpoint to many people & where I'd say "the" in the absence of a possessive noun because nothing else fits the description.

Now, as for the verb tenses:
If I were to win the lottery (which I don't expect to) I might
visit any number of other places. If I won the lottery (and I
believe there's a good chance I'd have unlimited funds because
math isn't my forte) I'd buy an old castle & add a pipe organ.

If I were travelling in China, I'd ask the locals what they call this thing. If you were to approach it you could do the same. But I understand only a few words in Chinese & I'm not sure whether or not they use articles.... :-))




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi Ardith,

Thu 16 Jan 2025 at 20:26, you wrote to Alexander Koryagin:

If I were travelling in China, I'd ask the locals what they call this thing. If you were to approach it you could do the same.
But I understand only a few words in Chinese & I'm not sure whether or
not they use articles.... :-))

As a matter of fact they don't have articles.


... All things are possible. Except skiing through a revolving door
--- dED+/ˆ‚– 1.1.5
* Origin: Microsuxx, Inc. (2:5023/24.4222)

Hi, Gleb! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

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.

Good grief! I don't know how many we have in English, but I've heard from apparently intelligent & well-educated Fidonetters in Z2 that they gave up trying to learn German as I did when I was required to memorize 25 prepositions taking three different cases in the ninth lesson. The English language ditched many inflections long ago. OTOH the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes left their mark. The basic vocabulary is tantalizingly familiar at times... so much so that when I told a neighbour who had recently travelled in Europe what I've just told you he said "What cases?" and I had to haul out one of my old textbooks. I get the impression he found the language easy when nobody was marking his grammar. :-)

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.

It may be an overgeneralization to assume one can always do this, but you mentioned "home" in your next message. My Canadian dictionaries offer many examples showing how folks use it in the singular & the plural, with or without articles, and if other dictionaries don't I can easily add ten or twelve.

Teachers often remark that before one can ask the right questions one must know at least half of the answers. Once you've cited "home" I realize the same principle applies to "school" and "church" to a more limited extent. Such words denote the names of places but may include social groups or concepts too.

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?" :-)

The FREE DICTIONARY regards "would of" as a misspelling of "would've" ... according to an entry dated 2024... and that's my take on it. It is fairly common among kids in grade eight, but most people seem to know better later on. In grade eight I made notes re what I thought I had heard in French class. :-Q

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"?)

In this case the company does replace house windows & patio doors. I think it may be to their credit if they're perfectionists in their line of work
... but I can't help being doubtful when they want me to think of them as "real professionals" although they can't spell or pronounce the word correctly. :-))

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).

Years ago one our Canadian readers here... who was also a musician... typed "coulda, woulda, shoulda". I interpreted his words as roughly equivalent to "hindsight is always 20/20" & according to the above dictionary I was right. It's a "stock expression" used informally, but if teenagers & others who aren't clear on the concept spend far more $$$ downloading popular music to their cell phones than I would I can't blame singers or songwriters for knowing which side their bread is buttered on. Musicians have to make a living somehow... [grin].

"...give house room to" is not about "a room in the house",
but "room" as in "Make room!", right?

Right.

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

I think I haven't until just now, but Hadrian is/was a
proper noun (thus no articles needed)?

Yes. Hadrian was the Roman emperor who ordered its construction.

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

Uh-huh. Some folks evidently believe that once they've finished high school they needn't bother learning any more... [weary sigh].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 29.01.2025 02:20

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?" :-)

The FREE DICTIONARY regards "would of" as a misspelling of
"would've" ... according to an entry dated 2024... and that's
my take on it. It is fairly common among kids in grade eight,
but most people seem to know better later on. In grade eight I
made notes re what I thought I had heard in French class. :-Q

Very soon it will be over. The AI helper answers us any such question and gives as hundred kilograms of examples. ;-)

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2025

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* Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/360.0)

Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

In grade eight I made notes re what I thought I had
heard in French class. :-Q

Very soon it will be over. The AI helper answers us any such
question and gives as hundred kilograms of examples. ;-)

While I do like the idea that AI can generate examples more quickly & easily than I can, I'm not always happy as yet with the results... [chuckle].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 07.03.2025 02:42

In grade eight I made notes re what I thought I had
heard in French class. :-Q

Very soon it will be over. The AI helper answers us any such
questions and gives as hundred kilograms of examples. ;-)

While I do like the idea that AI can generate examples more
quickly & easily than I can, I'm not always happy as yet
with the results... [chuckle].

IMHO, AI can quickly peruse the tons of most honourable books and find the sentences which can serve as examples. The main thing the AI must realise what it is asked for. ;)

And if it does realise it I can only have a pity for those poor translators of 197x and earlier. They have in their disposal only tattered dictionaries.

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2025

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* Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/360.0)