Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

My kids always have a hard time with this idea. When you're talking about things you like (dogs, cats, games), the noun is plural (if countable). You like the whole category, not just a specific member of that set.

Question: this there a grammatical term for this? Anyone have an easy way to explain it?

[reactionary]

i think the term you might be looking for is definite and indefinite articles.

indefinite: i like dogs. or "a dog was walking down the street" (which dog??)

Dogs make good pets...same as A dog makes a good pet.

definite; i like the dog, i like the dogs - both people know which dog is being talked about, hence "definite"


What I like to do, I got it from a grammar book. Draw pics of two faces and draw thought and speech bubbles. One face will use an indefinite article "I have a cat" and be thinking of a red cat. The other will say "Oh???" and draw several different cats with a question mark.

Or if you use a definite article, like "You should feed the cat" - have them be thinking of the same cat.

haha sorry that sounds odd now that i reread it, but hope you get the gist. IT's something helped by pictures I think. If you can get ahold of the "blue" grammar book (I forget the title) by Azar, there's a few pages with pictures that were really helpful for me.

[littlelisa]

Yeah, I agree with reactionary. That falls under definite and indefinite articles.

[saw6436]

Betty Azar is your friend.

[sjk1128]

Why not add in "I like dog."

Flood them with comprehensible input and let the rules sort themselves out later. Learning a rule will never fix the problem like tons of exposure to correct examples will.

Memorizing a bunch of rules is not how anyone learns to speak a language, and Korean kids will usually learn plenty of grammar rules much more efficiently with their Korean teachers to satisfy their needs on English tests for life- which is the only place grammar rules are useful.

Good luck.

[suneater]

[jajdude]

If they can understand general vs specific they might get it, but it's also a language thing that even high level students make mistakes with. English articles are trouble for Korean students.

[Cerriowen]

This won't help you to explain it grammatically... but here's what I do with my kids.

I point out that saying "I like chickens" and "I like chicken" have different meanings. You like the animal, you like to eat the animal. Then I gave several examples... "I like puppies", "I like hamsters". Then we go around the room and they tell me what animals they like. If they make a misake (I like bird) I pretend to put something in my mouth and chew. It sends them in to fits of giggles.

Now every time they make a mistake "I like skunk" I pretend to look shocked and say "you ATE a skunk?!?!?!" Often they will correct eachother the same way.