Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 August 9

= August 9 =

The or a
Sanity check: at 1963 Moscow protest, in the phrase "Moscow, a second Alabama" is "a" the correct article or "the" would be appropriate? Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 09:52, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
 * It's "a". There could be more than one place compared to Alabama. Besides which, if that's an exact quote, then it is what it is. <-Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots-> 11:48, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Presumably the placards were in Russian, which has no articles. I found this which suggests the correct translation might be "Moscow is (a/the) second Alabama", since in Russian the long — usually stands for the omitted verb "to be". Or also likely, the intended effect was simply headlinese "Moscow — second Alabama", as texts on placards usually are. 93.136.126.184 (talk) 17:41, 9 August 2020 (UTC)
 * It would more probably be "a" in "Moscow is a second Alabama", but "the" in "Moscow is the third Rome". Of course, the Russian language has neither indefinite nor definite articles... AnonMoos (talk) 15:45, 9 August 2020 (UTC)