Use of A/An/The ...... Articles

You've already told us that few pages ago ;)

Mount Everest is a mount why The Himalayas are a range.

Just checking :)

OK, how about the big world conflict between 1939-1945. What was that called? ;)

The Second World War

I beat you to your next queston: Holland and the Netherlands ;)

Not World War II?

Ok The World War II

Hey, think of sth more difficult.

E.g., why Bridge of Sighs but the Golden Gate Bridge?


Seanus is playing tricks on you. Both are correct.

Nope, you were right. WWII or the Second World War :) :)

Ask a Dutchman :) :) They explained it well to me :)

So during World War Second but during the Second World War... you got me here.

No, during WW2 or during the Second World War.

World War Two? Or World War Second?

Maaarysia, I'm referring to cardinals and ordinals here.

WWII is cardinal and the Second World War is ordinal.

Dwa i druga

In Polish we write Roman numbers only when we mean ordinal numbers.

Aha, that's where the confusion is. It's WW2 then :)

Maaarysia, I'm impressed with your general English but please ask any article-related questions here if you are unsure of anything.

The most/Most/Very

Ok. I know that the most is the superlative co-word to form polisylable adjectives but I've just came across new meaning of that word in corelation with an adjective. I haven't known before that most without the means more less the same thing as the word very. E.g. Adaś is most intelligent boy.

Now the questions:
1. Is there any difference in using very and most? I mean in the meaning.
2. Therefore can I use a with most? I found such example but I don't know if it's a typo or a correct sentence.

He is a most intelligent boy. This is rather au fait and used mostly by school teachers in formal school reports. It is valid, yes :)

what does it mean?
*I've checked three dictionaries which says that au fait means to be familiar with... but it doesn't match to the context.


So not most without preposition but a most? Haha so my source made a mistake either way ;)

Maaarysia wrote:


yep.

I meant it as 'btw'. It is not a central use of the articles, more incidental. Still, good question.

You and your dictionaries are right. It doesn't match the context.

Au fait can mean btw or incidental.

Nonsense. When you're in a hole, stop digging!

french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/aufait.htm

here :) It's a rather obscure point which I've never had to teach and I often cover articles.

Yes, in French :)
So you mean that the phrase containing a most is usually added incidentally, right? What do you mean? ;)

...I'm bit slow today...

I meant that it is incidental to the main discussion. It is more of an aside point, highly specific in its nature. As you said, most is most often the superlative and not often couple with 'a' but 'the' :)

This link gives one meaning of the term as used in French. Check your English dictionary (absolutely any one) and you'll see that in English it has just one meaning.

Well, I've just come off a class with a lot of French-English so forgive me. I was clearly thinking in French. It's French, not English.

Still it's a very intresting case.
So you say it's rare. Is it an archaic expression?

Not archaic, no. Just used in limited contexts like the one I said or when families are describing their son or the son of another family.

"He was a most peculiar man."
I think in these cases "most" is used as "very".
"He was a most intelligent boy." = "He was a very intelligent boy."
whereas:
"He was the most intelligent boy." = "He was more intelligent than the other boys."

And please don't ask me to talk about "parts of speech". My English was learned by trial and error, not study and analysis. :->

Yes. It is largely a literary form.