(the) English tense

@JTT,

So tell me, how often recently have you found occasion to use a form analagous to "the Mr. Jones in shipping", as opposed to simply "Mr. Jones in shipping", or even simply "Mr. Jones"? Pretty seldom, I bet. If you get as hung up on arcana in class as you do here, I'm surprised your students ever get beyond learning just "yes" and "no".

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Yeats: and the answer was YES. It would be very rare in any context that we would say, "The pr

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And the answer was Yes, if we use the name, No, if we don't.

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@WBYeats,

Quote:

-As professor says, we need to...

Yes, that is possible in a cutesy fashion but it's not the norm.[

Quote:

just as we can use MASTER without THE, treating the master as a family member like

This would be an exception, old fashioned, BrE thing.

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@JTT,

and speaking of BrE, I get the impressison from British TV, that even "Mother" or "Father" is pretty formal, and they'd be more likely to say "
Me mum says" or "Our mum says". ("Mum" is BrE, AmE would be "mom").

a

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@MontereyJack,

It depends upon register, class, period (time).

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@MontereyJack,

It would be much better if you just admitted you were wrong, Jack, and we move on.

English is complicated stuff. You can't be expected to know it all.

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I was right. Yes, it is complicated. You can't be expected to know it all. We're in agreement there.

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@MontereyJack,

The complicated aspects of language are beyond you, Jack, and you are well aware of that.

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@JTT,

On the contrary. I've consistently been right. You represent a minority contrarian position, which as we have seen repeatedly, goes against the obvious facts of linguistic usage, as professional practicioners of linguistics agree.

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@MontereyJack,

You were wrong, Jack. Now you can't even comprehend the written word , your own words.

You said,

. You'd never say "the Mister Jones told me....". Well, I'm sure JTT will come up with some convoluted way you would say "THE Mister Jones", but it would be strain ... .

You were flat out wrong, which you proceeded to admit a number of times.

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No, JTT. You're wrong. You construct absurd "paradigms" of how to use sorts of speech, which other users of English tell you are NOT representative of how they are actually used. You nitpick. And you're a supercilions twit to boot, who insists everybody MUST use English the way you do, even though it's clear others equally adept at the language DON'T. Recognize your own faults for a change.

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I was right about "the mister Jones". You did in fact come up with a convoluted way of using it, in a special case, far from the way is is used 99.99 % of the time. If you want to characterize it as non-convoluted, feel free. You'll still be wrong. And you'll still be a nit-picking twit.

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@MontereyJack,

Now you're just being obtuse, Jack. Go back and read what was stated by you and by me.

Do you understand what possibility means? What about "you'd never use ... ".

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I've got to go to work. Feel free to be pompous without me, JTT>

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

So tell me, how often recently have you found occasion to use a form analagous to "the Mr. Jones in shipping", as opposed to simply "Mr. Jones in shipping", or even simply "Mr. Jones"? Pretty seldom, I bet.

Apparently you do know the meaning of possibility, Jack. But can you remember what you say from one post to the next?

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@WBYeats,

Do you hope to speak English with English-speaking people in the future?

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Is THE optional?:

1. (The) KCSU (=King's College Student Union) was set up in 1670.
2. Today we'll go to (the) Beika Department Store.
3. (The) OUSU (=Oxford University/Open University Student Union) was set up in 1670.

The third one is difficult; we say Oxford University, no THE; but THE Open University, always THE.

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

So tell me, how often recently have you found occasion to use a form analagous to "the Mr. Jones in shipping", as opposed to simply "Mr. Jones in shipping", or even simply "Mr. Jones"? Pretty seldom, I bet. If you get as hung up on arcana in class as you do here, I'm surprised your students ever get beyond learning just "yes" and "no".

About 40 years ago, at least in Britain, everyone was very polite and called colleagues Mr Jones, Mrs Smith, Miss Wilson, etc. Nowadays everyone, from the guy who cleans the toilet to the CEO, is on first-name terms with everyone else. In the old days you might have used a definite article to distinguish the Mr Jones in Finance from the Mr Jones in Marketing, but now they can be Jack Jones and Bill Jones. I cannot recall using a period in Mr. Mrs. etc ever ebing encouraged in UK usage. Is it an American thing?

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

and speaking of BrE, I get the impressison from British TV, that even "Mother" or "Father" is pretty formal, and they'd be more likely to say "
Me mum says" or "Our mum says". ("Mum" is BrE, AmE would be "mom").

Addressing parents as Mother and Father is pretty much vanished and has been since about 1930. Describing them as "my father" and "my mother" is current and class-neutral. "My mum" and "my dad" are informal variants. "Me mum.dad" and "our mum/dad" are regional and informal.

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(the) English tense

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