On the importance of articles
Sep. 6th, 2002 10:05 amI have several co-workers who do not speak English as a first language. Specifically, many of their native languages do not include articles. ("the" or "a") This is a frequent topic of discussion. Today, one of my co-workers wished to propose that we hold some training for a certain client in how our internal processes work; he sent out an email that began with: (the names have been changed)
I think we can try to organize the training for ClientName on how ProductName works with a specific emphasizing how SubprocessName is structured.My first reaction on reading this was "wait, what training? Since when are we giving them training?" Now compare this with what he intended to say:
I think we can try to organize training for ClientName on how ProductName works with a specific emphasizing how SubprocessName is structured.That one little word makes a world of difference; I tried to explain to him how by using "the" he was pulling in external context that did not exist, but I'm not sure I got the meaning across.