How do we know what correct English sounds like?

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

A person might say:

“Nobody ever goes to that restaurant any more.”

but not:

“Everyone never goes to that restaurant any more.”

How is a foreigner, new to the language, suppose to know which is correct? How is that I know which is correct?

I dated a woman from another country. She had trouble knowing when to use “the”. For me, this comes naturally. I know it is incorrect to say:

“I posted a tweet on the Twitter.”

And yet I know that “the” is used correctly in “The Twitter” in this sentence:

“The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages,” remarked Newsweek’s Steven Levy.

I realize this can be confusing for people who are just learning the language (or even those who have 20 years experience with the language, as some people I know). I’m left wondering how I know when “the” is correct.

Post external references

  1. 1
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
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