Question

17 January

Japanese

English (US)

Question about English (US)

ケーキを４等分(よんとうぶん)してください。
Cut the cake into the four equal pieces (or quarters).
Does this sound natural?

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Answers

ohkei_

17 January

English (US)

It sounds a little bit unnatural. You don’t need to use the article “the” before “four equal pieces”. I think that “Cut the cake into four equal parts.” would sound the most natural. Keep up the good work!

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Highly-rated answerer

nomadatlatl

17 January

Japanese

@ohkei_ Thanks for your feedback. Can you tell me the reason "the" isn't necessary in this context?🙇 The usage of articles is a headache for me!😩

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Esmira_Ahmadova

17 January

English (US) Near fluent
Azerbaijani

Hi!
Cut the cake into 4 equal pieces.
The reason why you don’t need to use an article is because you already give amount of the pieces.
Cut the cake into the pieces.
Cut the cake into 4 pieces.
When you are certain or sure about sth you should use the article “the”.

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nomadatlatl

17 January

Japanese

@Esmira_Ahmadova Thanks for your reply. Well, you already give amount of the pieces←this is the part I'm not sure about. Can you please explain it so that I can understand easily?🙇 Thanks in advance.

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Esmira_Ahmadova

17 January

English (US) Near fluent
Azerbaijani

@nomadatlatl you’re welcome!
When I wrote amount,I referred to this phrase.(into 4 equal pieces)You’ve already given a certain number(4) If you didn’t give a number the you would use this phrase instead(into the equal pieces)–In this case you also mean pieces but you don’t know the amount.You just know that there should be certain pieces which is why we use the article “the”.
Hopefully it was a little more clear this time.

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nomadatlatl

17 January

Japanese

@Esmira_Ahmadova Ah, that makes sense, I got it. Thanks a lot.

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ケーキを４等分(よんとうぶん)してください。Cut the cake into the four equal pieces (or quarters).Does this sound natural? See a translation

It sounds a little bit unnatural. You don’t need to use the article “the” before “four equal pieces”. I think that “Cut the cake into four equal parts.” would sound the most natural. Keep up the good work!

Hi!Cut the cake into 4 equal pieces.The reason why you don’t need to use an article is because you already give amount of the pieces.Cut the cake into the pieces.Cut the cake into 4 pieces. When you are certain or sure about sth you should use the article “the”.

ケーキを４等分(よんとうぶん)してください。
Cut the cake into the four equal pieces (or quarters).
Does this sound natural?

See a translation

Hi!
Cut the cake into 4 equal pieces.
The reason why you don’t need to use an article is because you already give amount of the pieces.
Cut the cake into the pieces.
Cut the cake into 4 pieces.
When you are certain or sure about sth you should use the article “the”.