the the

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

(07-31-2022 02:25 PM)vaklaff Wrote:  If I may detour... My native tongue doesn't use articles, I haven't fully grasped them and in spite of nearly forty years of learning English it's still a source of frustration for me. For example, here a native speaker wrote I don't have "the the" problem but my version would be I don't have the "the the" problem (article - adjective - noun). Sigh...

Notice that he says he skips words, which might make us non-native wonder he has skipped one “the” or not. On the other hand they say “I don’t have stomach problem”, not “I don’t have the stomach problem”. However, “I don’t have the stomach problem he had” sounds good. So, both “I don’t have ‘the-the’ problem” and “I don’t have the ‘the-the’ problem [you’ve been mentioning]” appear to be ok. Incidentally, when I read the first message in this thread I wondered how this would translate in Polish, „Nie mam the-the-ego problemu” or „nie mam the-the problemu” ?
BTW, I’ve found only one “the the ” occurrence in my posts (many other different mistakes, though).