The Article Issue

I remember back in college, there was a lot of discussion about whether dropping the article did in fact sounds "cooler." Students would say things like "Did you bring notebook?" or "I have pen."

Yeah. You're right, it doesn't really sound cooler...but that's what they thought. I remember that Germans were also praised then for the fact that their language allegedly drops all such articles. I doubt the German language would be praise at this point, what with how we don't like them as much.

But anyway, The Corner is having some interesting posts about just such a question (concerning the articles, not our spat with Germany).