Improve English, remove articles
Created | Updated Oct 31, 2002
Old school of English speakers and writers have disturbing habit using a, an and the before words. These articles serve no use what so ever. Some of more advanced languages (Finnish for example) on planet Earth have managed to leave these little relicts into dark ages of history where they belong.
It is really hard to justify use of these little nuisances. English language is just as perfectly understandable without articles than it is with them. As example:
"I have a car" or "I have car"
In both cases it is perfectly understandable that the fellow speaking has car or at least he is bluffing about having one. Let us see what happens when he continues his speech.
"The car is very big and red" or "Car is very big and red"
OK, now he tells about properties of car. If speaker is not known to have tendency of jumping from one subject to another one you'll know even without "The" that adjectives mentioned obviously describe car mentioned in previous sentence.
As example of how longer text works just as nicely without articles read following text first without articles.
Wide-ranging understanding of crustal composition, age and evolution is essential to search for exploitable mineral resources. Studies of Finnish bedrock support directly and indirectly exploration for ores, industrial minerals, building stones, rock aggregate and underground construction. Geological maps of bedrock are basic reference source for information concerning Earth's crust. In Finland, geological maps are mostly published at scale of 1:100 000, and should be available for whole country within 25 years.
And now read same with articles and see if articles give text any additional information.
A wide-ranging understanding of crustal composition, age and evolution is essential to the search for exploitable mineral resources. Studies of the Finnish bedrock support directly and indirectly exploration for ores, industrial minerals, building stones, rock aggregate and underground construction. Geological maps of bedrock are a basic reference source for information concerning the Earth's crust. In Finland, geological maps are mostly published at a scale of 1:100 000, and should be available for the whole country within 25 years.1
As this short example clearly indicates articles have no use in English language and therefore you could do yourself and world service by leaving them out. Benefits of article free English include among others:
- Saves time when writing is faster
- Shortens letters books etc. and so saves woods, which in turn slows greenhouse-effect
- Saves money on telephone bills when calls will be in average 5% shorter
- Gives whole language new and modern look, makes it suitable for new millenium
- Makes learning language easier and therefore adds to English's world dominance
So join campaign for article free English! Towards new and improved world without depressing imperialistic articles!