Объясните , в каком случае мы ставим артикль a, the перед half, а в каком случае после half?

Ifound in dictionaries that ‘half’ can be used in the pattern ‘half a/the/this/my something’ (as in ‘they live half a mile up the road’, ‘i have to spend half my time reading his reports’ etc.) or in the position of an adjective (as in ‘they ordered a half bottle of wine’, ‘they sold all the tickets in the first half hour etc.’). al blanco, think about the difference between 'a half bottle of wine' and 'half a bottle of wine' 1) 'half a bottle of wine' is half of a whole bottle of wine, and 2) 'a half bottle of wine' is a bottle that is half as big as a normal one. so, in 1) it's the quantity 'half' of a bottle and in 2) it's something called 'a half bottle' the use of the indefinite article should be clear. 'a half an hour' and 'a half a kilo' are wrong. there should be no 'a' before 'half' the case of 'a half hour' or 'half an hour' is different. they can both be used although i prefer 'half an hour'. 'a half hour' would be considering the period of 30 minutes as a unit of time called 'a half hour'. 'a cool half a million' is correct because if you use a qualifier like 'cool' it applies to 'half a million' as a whole and so the article is required. hello, i'm from australia originally and have now lived in the us for half my life or half of my life. sometimes the use of "a half" or "half of" or "half an" is a matter of the local vernacular. for example, i say "half an hour", and americans often say "a half hour". it drives me nuts, but there's actually no difference, just a matter of what most people say in any given area of the world. regarding "half a bottle" and "a half bottle" what you don't see in the spoken language is a hyphen which should be used in "a half-bottle". a "half-bottle" is two words joined together to make a compound word, so it needs a hyphen. hyphens are sorely missing in the written american language, and when i read newspapers, books, and anything else printed here, i'm always stumbling over the flow of a sentence because of missing hyphens. it's an ever-evolving language, and i have to get used to it! confusing, but "half a bottle" indicates that half the liquid is there, and half is missing - or - if the bottle is broken, half of the actual bottle it is there and half is missing too! you have a reasonable grip on your "halves" but if in doubt again, continue to ask and eventually you will just memorize the particular uses of this word! after all, that's how all of us english speaking people learnt our own language as little children too. it's a difficult language to master, because it breaks it's own rules so often so asking, as you have done here, will be your key to clearing up other linguistic mysteries in the future too! good luck!

Меня зовут екатерина. мне 15 лет. недавно я переехала жить в город санкт-петербург. я учусь шесть дней в неделю, поэтому свой единственный выходной я стараюсь провести интересно и весело. утром я просыпаюсь позже обычного. люблю немножко повалятся в постели и посмотреть телевизор. в воскресенье показывают много интересных передач. в выходные моя мама готовит что-нибудь вкусненькое. печёт пироги или сладкие булочки. мы вместе завтракаем, а потом идём гулять по городу. я увлекаюсь живописью, поэтому люблю посещать художественные выставки. вечером я встречаюсь с друзьями и мы идём в кино. а после кинотеатра сидим в каком-нибудь кафе или макдональдсе и обмениваемся впечатлениями о фильме. иногда с друзьями встретиться не удаётся, тогда весь вечер я провожу с родителями и старшей сестрой. мы вместе идём в театр или в концертный зал. я люблю свой выходной день, потому-что можно хорошо отдохнуть и запастись силами на всю неделю. my name is catherine. i’m fifteen years old. i’ve moved to st. petersburg recently. i study six days a week that’s why i try to spend my only day off merrily and interestingly. in the morning i wake up later than usual. i like to lie slugging a bed and to watch tv. television shows many interesting programmes on sunday. my mother cooks something delicious at the weekend. she bakes cakes or sweet buns. we have breakfast together and then walk around the town. i’m fond of painting that’s why i like to visit art exhibitions. in the evening i meet with friends and we go the cinema. after the film we spend time in any cafe or mcdonalds and compare notes. sometimes i can’t meet with friends and then i spend the whole evening with my parents and elder sister. we go to the theatre or to the concert hall together. i love my day off very much because i can have a good rest and collect my strength for a whole week.

great britain 

the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland (the uk) occupies most of the territory of the british isles. it consists of four main parts: england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. london is the capital of england, edinburgh is the capital of scotland, cardiff— of wales and belfast — of northern ireland. the uk is a small country with an area of some 244,100 square kilometres. it occupies only 0.2 per cent of the world's land surface. it is washed  by the atlantic ocean in the north-west, north and south-west and separated from europe by the north sea in the east and by the english channel in the south. the strait of dover or pas de calais is the narrowest part of the channel. the north sea and the english channel are often called "the narrow seas"; they are not deep but are frequently rough.

in the west the irish sea and the north channel separate the uk from ireland. the seas around britain provide exceptionally good fishing grounds. the country has many bays favourable for shipping. in their shelter are britain's main ports such as london, liverpool, glasgow, hull and others.

one will not find very high mountains or large plains in great britain. everything occupies very little place. nature, it seems, has carefully adapted things to the size of the island itself. the highest mountain is ben nevis in scotland, 4,406 feet high. the longest river is the severn in england.

the population of the united kingdom is over 57 million people. foreigners often call british people "english", but the scots, the irish and the welsh do not consider themselves to be english. the english are anglo-saxon in origin, but the welsh, the scots and the irish are celts, descendants of the ancient people, who crossed over from europe centuries before the norman invasion. it was this people, whom the germanic angles and saxons conquered in the 5th and 6th centuries ad. these germanic conquerors gave england its name —  "angle" land. they were conquered in their turn by the norman french, when william the conqueror of normandy landed near hastings in 1066. it was from the union of norman conquerors and the defeated anglo-saxons that the english people and the english language were born.

the official language of the united kingdom is english. but in western scotland some people still speak gaelic and in northern and central parts of wales people often speak welsh.

the uk is a highly developed industrial country. it is known as one of the worlds largest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics» textile» aircraft, and navigation equipment. one of the chief industries of the country is shipbuilding.

the uk is a constitutional monarchy. in law, head of the state is queen. in practice, the country is ruled by the elected government with the prime minister at the head. the british parliament consists of two chambers: the house of lords and the house of commons.

there are three main political parties in great britain: the labour, the conservative and the liberal parties.

the flag of the united kingdom, known as the union jack, is made up of three crosses. the big red cross is the cross of saint george, the patron saint of england. the white cross is the cross of saint andrew, the patron saint of  scotland. the red diagonal cross is the cross of saint patrick, the patron saint of ireland.