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English: A vs. An

365 points · 529 comments · azhenley

  1. theanonymousone · · focus · HN ↗
    The most problematic for me as a non-native has been "the" vs "nothing", i.e. when one can/should put the definite article.

    Pre-LLM I was joking that real AI is whatever can make that decision correctly 100% of times.

    1. geocar · · focus · HN ↗
      Try making it with "a" - if thing can be "a thing" then it could be "the thing" but if it can't be "a thing" it definitely can't be "the thing" either.
      1. rom1v · · focus · HN ↗
        "I play the piano" or "I play piano"?
        1. landdate · · focus · HN ↗
          "i play piano" - i know how to play piano "i play the piano" - i am playing the piano

          that is just my intuition as native english speaker, but the former cojld also mean the latter and i have seen it used like such before.

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