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HUNGARIAN-ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CONTRASTS. A PRACTICAL APPROACH
The use of the articles is one of the biggest problems for advanced level
Hungarian learners of English. In general, Hungarians tend to overuse definite
articles in English. The causes of this tendency are related to contrasts between
the rules for article usage in English and Hungarian.
In view of the importance of this issue, in this section we shall first survey
the uses of the indefinite, the definite and the zero article in English, and then
compare them to their Hungarian counterparts. The survey is based on Quirk
at al. (1985).
5.3.1 The English article system
Articles determine the reference of a noun. A dog refers to a specific dog, but
does not indicate which dog is meant, so it is indefinite. The dog refers to a
specific dog: it is definite because the listener is supposed to know which dog
is indicated. Dogs does not refer to specific dogs, but to dogs in general.
The indefinite, the definite and the zero article in English can express spe¬
cific, generic, definite and indefinite reference, as shown in Table 5.
Table 5. The English article system
Specific Definite | the The back door of the house was left open.
He went in by the front door.
The milk went sour.
zero | Peter lives in New York.
He was elected president in 2000.
She was taken to hospital. In the evening they went
to town.
Indefinite | a(n) | It is stuffy here; let’s open a window.
zero | Would you like (some) wine?
Unspecific | Indefinite | a(n) You need a friend.
zero | We had wine on the table. I often talk to people.
Generic zero | Cats are cute, but dogs are intelligent. Grass is green.
a(n) |A cat may look at a king.
the The elephant is the largest land animal.
THE ZERO ARTICLE ©
Like a/an with singular countable nouns, the zero article signals indefiniteness
with uncountable nouns (1) and plural countable nouns (2):
1 We have tea and coffee, but no milk.
2 We have friends in high places.
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