I am sometimes asked to proofread papers in english written by folks in my laboratory. Today was no different. I actually enjoy doing this kind of work, but that is not what I want to talk about.
Today, while proof-reading another paper, it came to me that one of the mistakes I see most often is the incorrect usage of “a/an” and “the”. There are people with varying degrees of proficiency in english in my lab, but regardless of that, this is the most common mistake (at least the one I remember seeing most).
Also, it seems to me that more often than not, the problem is an extra “the”, where none was needed, or a “the” instead of an “a/an”. I don’t usually see a lacking “the” (they do exist, however).
I wonder why.
I think the confusion starts from the point that there’re no such articles in Japanese. I can imagine the reason for mistaking “a/an” for “the” if you’re not used to that… and we usually see more “the” than “a/an” around, right?
But why using it when is not needed happens more than not using it when you should is beyond me…
Well, that the confusion is related to the fact that there is no such articles in Japanese is a give, I think. But even then, that does not explains much, because there are many ways these articles can be misused, yet the way that I see them misused around here seems pretty consistent.