Question:
I'm from Dubna, Moscow region, Russia; jinr - J oint I nstitut for
N uclear R esearch - I work there.
I'm studying English. I would like to ask the native speakers the following
things:
Can you use right all the Grammar tenses and constructions with your
borning ? What about definite and indefinite articles?
I know the grammar rules, but however I can't say I'm absolutly clear.
How do you study English?
Answer:
I'm not sure that I understand the question. Are you asking whether
native speakers of English use tenses, articles, and other constructions
"right"? That depends upon what you mean by right. Native speakers of
any language acquire as small children the grammar of the dialects they
are exposed to. Verb systems vary a good bit from one dialect to
another in English. Some native speakers speak a dialect that's pretty
close to Standard English in verb tense; some speak dialects of English
that have different verb systems. The verb system of Black English
Vernacular, for example, is more refined (i.e., makes more distinctions)
than the standard verb system. Speakers of that dialect have to learn
new conjugations if they want to use the standard.
There's not much dialectal variation in the use of articles in English.
Therefore, native speakers don't have to think much about article use --
the "correct" use comes naturally. People studying English as a foreign
language have big problems with articles because the rules are pretty
hazy.
How does who study English? Speakers of non-standard dialects study
the standard in much the way people learning English as a second (or
third or fourth) language do -- memorizing rules and practicing
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