Hi alexander -- on Jan 16 2012 at 12:01, you wrote:

No, it must be "the Russian language". Probably you mixed up with
the phrase like this:
English is easier than Russian.
but
The English language is easier than the Russian Language.

Yes! Nice example! (or more formally, "That's a nice example").

I think there must be a different expression for that idiom, like "try
to walk (or step) in(to) their shoes". There's even a Depeche Mode song about it. (-:

The expression is something like "before you critize someone, walk a mile in their shoes".

It is typical mistake - some people think if there is an idiom a
translator must use it. No, can express yourself clearly without
idioms. As I did, foe instance. Did I, Dallas? ;-)

Yes, you did!

The rule is taken from a Russian textbook, so the translation is
mine (and I shortened it a bit):
========================
Abstract nouns can be combined with descriptive adjectives.
Such adjectives make abstract nouns less general, but nevertheless
DO NOT CAUSE articles changing.

These adjectives are:
1. nationalities: English, French, etc.
2. social characteristics: democratic, feudal, religious, etc. 3.
temporal meaning: ancient, modern, daily, monthly, etc
4. spatial meaning: internal, external, inside, outside, etc. 5. authenticity, reliability: real, true, false, etc.
6. measure of features: great, immense, huge, perfect, sufficient,
etc. 7. genres: belles-letters, dramatic, comic, etc.
8. social or spiritual life: personal, moral, reasonable, etc. 9.
manner of behavior: informal, series, polite, etc.
10 mixed group: good, bad, free, ordinary, plain, etc. ========================
So, imho according exactly to this rules we omit "the" before "youth unemployment".

That's a nice excerpt -- well found!

In short, Englishmen tired of putting articles everywhere where
possible, and they tend to omit them whenever possible. ;-) It is
perfectly excusable: why should you put an article if you'll be
perfectly understood without it?
And because of it "they go on board the yacht", but not "on the
board of the yacht", although later is more correct. They speak "I
like late autumn",... however in a minute they can say "I like a
cool, late autumn. ;-)

Hmm ... I would quibble slightly; "on board" is an expression meaning "to get onto" so it would never be correct to say "go on the board". You could also say
"They board the yacht".


Cheers... Dallas

--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: The BandMaster, CANADA [telnet: bandmaster.tzo.com] (1:153/715)

Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to Oleg Ivannikov:

We forget that English has no totalitarian rules as
has the Russian language, due to the history of Russia.

[...]

English is easier than Russian.

This is grammatically correct usage.

The English language is easier than the Russian Language.

This is also grammatically correct usage. The problem, as I see it,
is that by changing horses in midstream you ended up with a faulty parallelism.
Now there's a technical term which might help you locate more information. :-)



As for "due to", here's what my GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY says:

"Due" was originally used only as an adjective, and therefore in formal
English many writers use "due to" only to introduce an adjective phrase
... [e.g.] "Her success was due to hard work." In informal English "due
to" is often used to introduce an adverb phrase: "Due to her hard work,
she succeeded." However, many people do not approve of this construction.
To avoid it, use "because of" or "on account of": "She succeeded because
of her hard work." "Because of her hard work, she succeeded."

I'm not sure whether Roy meant to suggest you omit the words "due to
the history of Russia" or whether he feels uncomfortable with using "due to" in
the informal manner described above. Either way, however, we'd be getting into
matters of style (which are more a judgement call than a set of rules).... ;-)

imho according exactly to this rules we omit "the"

|this rule, these rules

before "youth unemployment".

Thanks for sharing the explanation from your textbook. I would have
analyzed the situation in much the same way Oleg did, if he hadn't beaten me to
it. But others might also relate better to the former than to the latter. :-)




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

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

We forget that English has no totalitarian rules as has
the Russian language, due to the history of Russia.

English is easier than Russian.

This is grammatically correct usage.

The English language is easier than the Russian Language.

This is also grammatically correct usage. The problem, as
I see it, is that by changing horses in midstream you ended
up with a faulty parallelism.

I was sure that "English" == "the English language".

In this context the meaning is the same, yes.

So the reason, why I used both variants in one sentence was
for the sake of variety. ;)

Ah... I wondered, because you'd done such a fine job with the verbs there. A better place to introduce a variant would be in some other sentence, i.e. assuming you're writing an essay or a long message in ENGLISH_TUTOR where xxx & yyy are to be compared in depth and thus mentioned repeatedly. Within a single sentence parallelism can be very effective... as Winston Churchill must have known when he used it in his famous "We shall fight on the [etc.]" speech during WWII. It lends the impression that one's thoughts are well-organized & helps the audience relate to the logic.... :-)

So, it's better not to use "due to" to introduce
an adverb phase.

Agreed. I generally prefer to err on the side of caution. OTOH, I hope my readers will feel free to take the risk of experimenting with sentence structures they haven't mastered yet. If something doesn't quite work the way the author intended, somebody will help. That is what we're here for.... :-)

Maybe the rule "it is better to use 'due to' after
'to be' only" is easier to remember?

Makes sense to me. I remembered it the same way... [chuckle].

Human eyesight is so imperfect. When a man is concentrated
on the ball he DOESN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE. It was the idea
of this test. It is the main trick any fakir uses during
his performance.

We adjust the focal length of our eyes according to what we want to look at... in which case surrounding objects may appear blurred. When we want to take a closeup shot of a flower or a person's face we adjust our cameras in much the same way. We're often bombarded with so much visual & auditory input that our brains may suppress our conscious awareness of details such as who or what is strolling nonchalantly about the room while we're determined to get an accurate assessment of a relatively fast-paced series of events. Once you had some assurance that you'd performed the assigned task correctly, you were able to relax & take in more of what else was going on at the same time. I believe distraction is indeed a very important element in the art of illusion.... ;-)

When I think hard what to write, I forget many things. ;)

Yes... that's human nature too. While I'm focusing my attention on a person's question(s) re xxx I often overlook technicalities re yyy & zzz. I make a conscious mental gear change in order to proofread, whether the writing is my own or somebody else's. I don't try to correct every error here because I well remember how inhibited I felt as a less than brilliant student of other languages while struggling with inflections my native language had given up on centuries ago. I understand that you are striving for fluency & that you will probably recognize most of your own errors without any intervention... [grin].




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

From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@newmail.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Monday, 16 of January, I read your messsage to alexander koryagin
about "Q of an article (sent through demos gate)"

We forget that English has no totalitarian rules as has the
Russian language, due to the history of Russia.

English is easier than Russian.

This is grammatically correct usage.

The English language is easier than the Russian Language.

This is also grammatically correct usage. The problem, as I see
it, is that by changing horses in midstream you ended up with a
faulty parallelism.

I was sure that "English" == "the English language". So the reason,
why I used both variants in one sentence was for the sake of variety.
;)

Now there's a technical term which might help you locate more
information. :-)

As for "due to", here's what my GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY says:

...[e.g.] "Her success was due to hard work."
<skipped>
So, it's better not to use "due to" to introduce an adverb phase.

Probably it will be interesting to supplement it with a passage from the Longman dictionary:

------
USAGE: Compare "due to" and "owing to," which are similar in meaning.
1. Due to is used after the verb "to be"; you cannot use "owing to" in
this sentence [His absence was due to the storm.]
2. Some people think that "due to should only be used after the verb
"to be," but many speakers use it after other verbs, in the same way
as "owing to": [He arrived late due to/owing to (=because of) the
storm.]
------

Maybe the rule "it is better to use 'due to' after 'to be' only" is
easier to remember?
<skipped>

imho according exactly to this rules we omit "the"

|>this rule, these rules

before "youth unemployment".

Looking at this my error I remembered a TV show I watched recently. It
was very funny one. The presenter said to the TV audience:

"Look, behind me there are four people. They have a ball. Now they
will throw the ball to each other. You task is to count how many
passes they will make before I'll say 'stop.' Please, try your best, it
is an important test."

Well, those guys started throwing the ball to each other, and I, as a
fool, started to count the passes. I counted honestly and my number
was 20 or so.

Then the presenter said, "I recorded this game on video. Now let's
watch it."

When I started watching it I was amazed. Between the people playing
ball game there was walking an artist dressed up as an Abominable
Snowman. When I was counting the passes I didn't see him.

Human eyesight is so imperfect. When a man is concentrated on the ball he DOESN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE. It was the idea of this test. It is the main
trick
any fakir uses during his performance.

;-)
When I think hard what to write, I forget many things. ;)

[...Pride goes before a fall]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012


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From: "alexander koryagin" <koryagin@erec.ru>

F2EP
Hi, Ardith Hinton! How are you?
on Monday, 30 of January, I read your messsage to alexander koryagin
about "Q of an article (sent through demos gate)"

So, it's better not to use "due to" to introduce an adverb phase.

Agreed. I generally prefer to err on the side of caution. OTOH, I
hope my readers will feel free to take the risk of experimenting
with sentence structures they haven't mastered yet. If something
doesn't quite work the way the author intended, somebody will
help. That is what we're here for.... :-)

Maybe the rule "it is better to use 'due to' after 'to be' only"
is easier to remember?

Makes sense to me. I remembered it the same way... [chuckle].

Yeah, the rule is easy to due to its simplicity. ;-)

Human eyesight is so imperfect. When a man is concentrated on the
ball he DOESN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE. It was the idea of this test.
It is the main trick any fakir uses during his performance.

We adjust the focal length of our eyes according to what we want
to look at... in which case surrounding objects may appear
blurred.

I don't think it is an explanation. In fact, the performance I told of
was shown on the TV screen, and the focal length was always equal. The
problem is, I think, that concentration prevents eyes from casting
quick glances across the whole scene. When we are in our natural
condition our eyes are constantly scanning the things in front of us.
If we somehow block this scanning process we become almost blind.

BTW, The same situation is with our hearing ability. When we are
concentrated on some thoughts, sounds etc, we don't hear any other
sounds which are not connected with the subject we concentrated on.
Especially it is lamentable at school, during lections. ;-) A student
that is dreaming away of something during the lesson remembers nothing
after it. Well, if he dreams well, of course. ;)

When we want to take a closeup shot of a flower or a
person's face we adjust our cameras in much the same way. We're
often bombarded with so much visual & auditory input that our
brains may suppress our conscious awareness of details such as who
or what is strolling nonchalantly about the room while we're
determined to get an accurate assessment of a relatively fast-
paced series of events. Once you had some assurance that you'd
performed the assigned task correctly, you were able to relax &
take in more of what else was going on at the same time. I believe distraction is indeed a very important element in the art of
illusion.... ;-)

From another side it is perfectly good. I.e. we have the situation when
a person voluntarily refuses to think of anything except a particular
object. Theoretically it is good for that object. But when we invent a
story and write it down, we have actually two things: a kind of an
image or even a movie in our brains and a process of writing when we
operate with grammar rules, spelling, etc. As a rule, the first
process detriments the second. We have to have a good balance in these
two things, and the best way to improve our general performance is
practice.

BTw, that is why I like Fidonet style talking. We can have long, good
quoted discussions - the things we actually cannot have at web forums.
Text is the main thing! There is no foolish pictures, a lot of empty
space, ads, etc.

When I think hard what to write, I forget many things. ;)

given up on centuries ago. I understand that you are striving for
fluency & that you will probably recognize most of your own errors
without any intervention... [grin].

And anyway, it is a very useful when I am pointed at an error or two.
Every correction gives some power to be more attentive.

[...Skipped]
Bye Ardith!
Alexander (yAlexKo[]yandex.ru) + 2:5020/2140.91
fido7.english-tutor 2012



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