Grammar notes

Short notes on grammar patterns I keep getting wrong, written for myself as much as for anyone else.

Articles: `a`, `an`, `the`

For learners coming from a language without articles (Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and a long list of others), articles are the grammar point that never quite settles. The textbook rule — "the for specific, a/an for general" — is true but useless in the moment.

What helped me more was thinking about it as a question: does the listener already know which one I mean?

I bought a book. The book was about birds.

First mention — the listener does not yet know which book — so a. Second mention — now they do — so the. This catches maybe 70% of cases.

The other 30% are unique-by-context: the sun, the kitchen (the one in our house), the bus (the one we are about to take). If both speakers already know which thing is meant, the.

Countable vs. uncountable

You cannot say an information or three furnitures. Some nouns simply do not pluralise in English, even when their meaning feels countable. The annoying part is that the list is not predictable from meaning — you just have to learn them.

A small list to commit to memory:

information — not informations; use a piece of information.
advice — a piece of advice; never advices.
furniture — a piece of furniture; never furnitures.
equipment — a piece of equipment.
research — some research, not a research.
news — looks plural, is singular: the news is bad.

"Since" and "for" with the present perfect

Both are used to talk about a span of time leading up to now, but they answer different questions.

for + a duration: for three years, for a long time, for five minutes.
since + a starting point: since 2019, since I moved here, since Monday.

So: I have lived here for three years. Or: I have lived here since 2022. Not the other way round.

"-ed" vs "-ing" adjectives

Pairs like bored/boring, tired/tiring, excited/exciting trip up almost everyone at least once. The rule is:

-ed describes how someone feels.
-ing describes what causes the feeling.

So I am bored (your feeling) but the lecture is boring (its quality). Saying "I am boring" is grammatical, but it means something quite different — that other people find you dull. A mistake worth avoiding.

One small comfort