Sergey

If we say "Have you got a match?" then one would search in the match box for one. But, if we said "Have you got THE match?" one would think there was a particular special match (maybe one inlaid in gold?). SO the definite article "the" refers to a particular item (If I'd said "the particular item" you'd have thought which item is he talking of?). So, in Russian, you'd say "have you got match" which, naturally, you'd think is the 1st case. If you wanted to say "Have you got that special match, inlaid in gold, that I gave to you earlier", you'd have to say "Have you got THAT match". So it's more or less the same thing.

Does this make sense? :-)

>Terry,
>
>There isn't "article" in the Russian and I don't get why it's in the English. In Russian we would use "this table" or "that table" if we've to point to particulal "table". BTW, "IS" (present) was dropped from Russian language a vary long time ago also.