Well..., articles are overrated, you know... 
Don't listen to this person who has no idea how quests work. Articles are irrelevant, and a lot of people who think they know how things work really don't know, but are perfectly happy to perpetuate their myths and faulty syllogisms. "This is what I saw work, therefore it must be the only way it works." Well, no.
Well first of, your aggressive tone was completely unneccessary. Second, the phrase 'check the potion' did not work, neither for him nor for me back then, but for me it worked with 'check potion'. If this has changed since I did the quest I don't know, and actually I don't care either.
Another example where simplicity in quest phrases was NECCESSARY (and this is all I suggested) is the answer to a riddle, where it didn't work when you added ONE single letter. Without giving too much spoiler information... I w**l h**g, did not work, while w**l h**g did.
Want another one? The answer to another riddle: 'Throw the dwarf...' did not work, while 'throw dwarf...' did.
Another one? 2 guards who had trouble with some magical gear...: 'Give me the b******' did not work, while 'give me b*****' did.
Last one for now: 'About pollen ** ****' did not work, while 'about **** p*****' did.
There are plenty of other examples, thus I have learned to just let articles off and to formulate the phrases as simple as possible. Now, since you apparently have an idea on how quests work, let us all know why articles are irrelevant, yet alot of phrases won't work with them, and what was wrong with my suggestion to let them off, that made you attack me straight away.
