article!

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

hi…I want o ask about article …I just have done this so please …correct it
Put a/an/the or zero article .if 2 answers are possible give them both:
Are we talking now about …0….John Smith who led the Labour party?
We are going to a barbecue with ……0.Simson’s.
There’s …0….Linda Jones to see you.
A special award was given to…the …film director Ingmar Bergman.
We met old friend …0…Romey Thompson in Sydney .
That surely can’t be ……0.Jenny Waston we knew in Zimbabwe.
I didn’t use article because there is no article before noun people ,am I right.I need someone to check it and explain thanks :slight_smile:

2

I’m stuck …please help me !!

3

Here’s my take:

Are we talking now about THE John Smith who led the Labour party?
We are going to a barbecue with THE Simsons.
There’s A Linda Jones to see you.
A special award was given to THE/(no article) film director Ingmar Bergman.
We met old friend (NO ARTICLE) Romey Thompson in Sydney .
That surely can’t be THE Jenny Waston we knew in Zimbabwe.

4

Is [color=red]THE necessary?

My answer is “Are we talking now about John Smith, who led the Labour party?”

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3631879.stm
John Smith, who led the Labour party until his death in 1994, was a teacher at a local primary school on the island during his early years.

5

We met [color=blue]an old friend Romey Thompson in Sydney.

Isn’t [color=blue]an necessary?

6

I would say “That surely can’t be Jenny Watson, whom we knew in Zimbabwe.”

7

Hi Tofu,
The sentence in question and your sentence have little in common, structure-wise, frankly I don’t see why you cited it.
=)
But let’s see what native speakers think.

8

Not all native English speakers are good writers of English. Why don’t we wait for the correct answer?

9

  1. Are we talking now about the - or no article John Smith who led the Labour party?

  2. We are going to a barbecue with the Simson’s.

  3. There’s a Linda Jones to see you.

  4. A special award was given to the - or no article film director Ingmar Bergman.

  5. We met old friend no article here Romey Thompson in Sydney.

  6. That surely can’t be the Jenny Waston we knew in Zimbabwe.

  7. ‘The’ adds emphasis that you are talking about this particular John Smith, but is optional.

  8. ‘The’ Simson family. - this particular one.

  9. ‘A’ because Linda Jones is not known to the person giving the message, so she is one of many Linda Jones’s.

  10. ‘The’ adds emphasis that you are talking about this particular film director, but is optional.

  11. There is no ‘an’ as has been suggested, because there is no indication that Romey Thomson is a parenthetic clause. The punctuation would need to be:
    We met an old friend, Romey Thomson, in Sydney. (The sentence is correct without the name - the name is provided as secondary information.)

  12. Here the person is very definitely speaking about one particular Jenny Watson.

10

boston.com/news/nation/artic … ons_drive/
One of the many letters Hillary Rodham wrote to a high school friend John Peavoy while attending Wellesley College.

[size=150]Wrong: …to [color=red]a high school friend John Peavoy while…
Correct: …to high school friend John Peavoy while…
Correct: …to [color=red]a high school friend[color=blue], John Peavoy[color=blue], while…[/size]

Am I right?

11

[size=200]

[/size]

Is the apostrophe necessary?

12

Yes.

13

Arghhhhh!!!
No. It’s incorrect. My mistake. I’m rushing trying to catch up on the posts made while I was asleep. I’m going to have to give up even attempting to get around them all when I go back to work after my holidays.

And I’m very sorry but I’ve just made another error too. I edited your post instead of quoted it. Unfortunately there is no revert option to change it back so I’ve lost your formatting and image, sorry.

14

Hi B,