He has a good English

Question

hi.

I have heard that I should say "he has good English" instead of "he has a good English." I don't understand why. Especially I have found the sentence "he has a tolerable English" in a English grammar book. The explanation of the use of the aticle "a" in the previous sentence is "the indefinite article can be used for qualitative partition."

Thank you.

Chat_bleu · Accepted Answer

Those two sentences sound a little awkward to my ear (that doesn't mean they aren't correct).  I think it would be better to just say "his English is good" or "his English is tolerable".  Even if a sentence is correct grammatically it's probably best to go with the one that's most common because otherwise native speakers will think the grammar is incorrect even if they're the ones who are wrong. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>  I think the way I wrote the two above is probably the most common way to comment about someone's English (at least where I live).  Also, "he has good English" seems fine but I don't think you'll find many people who say the one with the indefinite article.  When was your grammar book written?

SpoonfedBaby · Answer

The sentence "he has a tolerable English" is from "A Student's Grammar of the English Language" written by Greenbaum and Quirk first published in 1990. Since it is grammatically fine to say "he has a tolerable English", I wonder if I can "he has good English" or "he has a good English."

I am having trouble with the indefinite article "a." That is why I don't understand "he has a good English" is not acceptable grammatically.

Thank you.

Paco2004 · Answer

I'm sorry to meddle your talk, but I'm very interested in it because I also have troubles in using English articles. I understand what Chat Bleu is saying has reason. "English" can't be countable, so probably we shouldn't say "a good English". Nevertheless it is also true we often hear native English speakers talk such a phrase as "He speaks a good English." I searched by Google the number of the web sites using "He speaks good English" and that using "He speaks a good English." The result was 517 for the former and 14 for the latter. So at least concerning "good English", you are right that we have to avoid putting "a" before it.

I feel, however, you English speakers have some tendency to put "a" to an uncountable noun when an adjective precedes the noun. The examples are;
(1) He was inspired with a new courage.
(2) When he finished speaking, there was a long silence.
(3) A heavy rain began to fall.
I haven't yet got the exact logic of using an indefinite articles in those sentences.

paco

Chat_bleu · Answer

Hmm. That's true that those examples use indefinite articles but I think those nouns become countable in that particular case. That is to say that I think you can count them up to one and no further. For example:

(1) He was inspired with a new courage.
This isn't courage in general but rather it's the courage that 'he' was inspired with at that moment. It's one courage that isn't specific so you use the indefinite article. However, you can't have more than one courage. For example: you would say "he was inspired with the courage of ten men" not "the courages".

(2) When he finished speaking, there was a long silence.
This is the same. You could say "there was silence" but as you said the adjective triggers the indefinite article because this is making the silence more specific. It's a 'long silence' as opposed to a short one.

(3) A heavy rain began to fall.
Again, it's a heavy rain as opposed to a light rain etc.

That said, I don't think you can use "a" with "good English" because good English is a little more general. It just doesn't sound quite right to use the indefinite article there. I think it might be that English covers a lot of different aspects like speaking, writing, reading etc. so you need to refer to it in a general sense.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Paco2004 · Answer

Chat Bleu

I appreciate your kind comments on my question but I still cannot make clear the logic of putting "a" before such uncountable nouns. I understand "courage" in generic sense can't be plural, but then why you can reckon "new courage" as a single courage? And I think rain is rain at whatever intensity and in whatever amount it falls.

As you know the Japanese language has not articles, it's very hard for us (I mean Japanese in general) to get the concept you English speakers have behind the usage of articles. When you teach English in Japan, you will get worried about how to make kids catch the sense of English articles. I assure you it.

paco

Chat_bleu · Answer

It's always hard for us to learn the things that don't exist in our own language. It's like the trouble we English speakers have with gender in the other European languages.

Unfortunately, I don't know a better way to explain the indefinite article. Actually the reason I'm here on this forum is so I can better my ability to intellectualize grammar so I can teach it because at the moment I only know what feels right to me as a native speaker. I was hoping someone else would have chimed in to give his/her input by now (hint, hint).

The best I can do for now is to say that you should just follow the general rule of putting an indefinite article if there's an adjective and just treat things like "he has good English" as exceptions to the rule.

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello all

'He has a tolerable English' is possible, but quaint. A more likely context would be e.g.

1. 'This essay is written in a tolerable English.'

The purpose of the indefinite article here is to give the sense of 'a particular kind of', or 'a particular brand of', i.e. here, 'this essay is written in a kind of English that is more or less comprehensible, but not the English of a native speaker'.

However, if we say:

2. 'This essay is written in tolerable English',

we mean 'English, the language as it is generally spoken'.

Sentence (1) implies that there is something distinctive (either good or bad) about the style of English. Sentence (2) has no such implication.

The commonest way of commenting on someone's grasp of English is to say 'he speaks good English' or 'his English is good'. 'He has good English' isn't really idiomatic; it has the air of a translation.

MrP

He has a good English

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