First, apologies for short / review / non existent blogs over the past few weeks. A few things happening here, not least a wrist injury – so short bits for the foreseeable.
Anyway, the reason for the title is this: I was reading “Understudying McKellen” by David Weston (excellent book, do read it). In it, he claims that there are no definite / indefinite articles in Russian. So “The Seagull” should really be called just “Seagull.”
What I want to know, and what I’d like a Russian speaking reader to tell me is, “How then do Russians distinguish in speech between the sentences,
“Look, there is a seagull” and “Look, there is the seagull.” Two different meanings, one general, one specific… but both requiring an article… all replies welcomed.