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1.5.1: Articles

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    121475
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    Articles:  A, An, and The

    The articles in English are the words “a, an, and the.”  They are very easy to spell, and they are very easy to make mistakes with.  In my opinion, they are the most difficult words in English grammar.  For your information, there are 50 grammar rules for these words.  That is more rules than for all the verb tenses in English combined.

    A and an always mean one something.  Thus, a book means one book; an apple means one apple. Both a and an mean one indefinite something.  Indefinite means that the speaker or the writer has not identified exactly who or what he is talking about.  After the speaker or writer says who or what he is talking about, native speakers and writers then switch from a and an to the. We use the for definite or identified nouns.  The difference between a and an is as follows:

    We use a before words beginning with a consonant letter or a long U.  A long U says its name: U.  Therefore, we say

    a uniform              a book                   a smell                a hat
    a university           a dog                     a visit                  a horse
    a usual day           a baseball               a door                 a house
    a unit                   a copy                    a zero                  a hut

    We use an before words beginning with the vowels a, e, i, o, and a short u as well as a silent h.

    an hour                              an umbrella                       an envelope
    an honorable man               an animal                          an ink-jet
    an honest woman               an orange                          an ugly accident
    an heir                               an unusual hat                   an image

    We use the word the before singular, identified nouns and plural nouns.  Identified nouns are nouns that a speaker or writer has already said once or nouns that are unique.  Unique means that there is only one of a certain thing.  For example, the sun and the moon are unique.  Therefore, we would use the when speaking about the Space Needle, the cafeteria in this college, the teacher of this class, the oldest person in the world, the fastest car, the president of the United States, the clock in the room, etc.  There is only ONE of each of these examples.

    The difference between a book and the book is a book means one of many possible books, while the book means a certain, identified book.  A nurse means one of many nurses, while the nurse means one particular nurse.

    Remember that the articles a and an can only be used with count nouns (nouns that can be counted).  Non-count nouns cannot be counted.  However, after first mentioning a non-count noun with words such as some, any, a little, a lot, etc., the next time you mention those words you use the definite article the.

    Examples:

    I have a bookThe book is in my office.
    A man came into my classroom.  The man is from Somalia.
    A car stopped in front of my house.  The car was a convertible.

    There was an umbrella on the counter in my room.  The umbrella belongs to one of my students.
    An old woman got on the bus.  The old woman walked very slowly.
    I saw an elephant at the zoo.  The elephant had long tusks.

    An honest man gave me the money that I lost.  The honest man spoke with an accent.
    A hat blew off a man’s head.  The man had just bought the hat.

    A young girl wore a school uniformThe girl had to wear the uniform every day to school.
    I taught at a university in Idaho.  The university was in Pocatello, Idaho.

    I drank some coffeeThe coffee was from Brazil.
    He put some water in a potThe water in the pot was from the faucet.

    There was a lot of hair on the floor of the beauty salon.  The hair belonged to the customers.
    There isn’t any sugar in the sugar bowl.  My son used all the sugar.

    The Earth revolves around the sunThe moon comes out at night.
    The library is located in the middle of this campus.

    Exercise 1:  Tell me why these articles (or no article) are correct, please.

    1. We need to buy some orange juice.  My son drank the orange juice this morning.
    2. I need to get some money from a cash machine.  I think I will go to the cash machine in Safeway for the money.  I need the money to buy some food.  The food should last a week.
    3. My car uses a lot of gasoline.  The gasoline is very expensive.
    4. He spilled some coffee on a carpet.  The coffee stained the carpet.
    5. It took me an hour to get from my house to school in the snow.
    6. She was an honest woman who had a dishonest husband.  The woman divorced the husband.
    7. A boy dropped a pencil on the floor.  The pencil was yellow.  The boy had to pick it up.

    With certain expressions of time, we use “the.”

    For example:

    in the morning

    in the afternoon

    in the evening

    However

    at night

    at noon

    at midnight

    on Tuesday

    in March

    in December

           Do Not Use “THE” for abstract nouns.  Abstract nouns are nouns that we cannot touch such as love, hate, beauty, intelligence, peace, sadness, friendship, honesty.

    Everyone needs love in his or her life.
    We need friendship among countries.
    There is a lot of beauty in nature.

    However, if an abstract noun is followed by a prepositional phrase, we use “the” in front of it. 

    the love of a child
    the intelligence of some people
    the sadness after a death
    the friendship between old friends
    the beauty in a song

    Use “the” with superlatives:  the best, the worst, the biggest, the oldest, the most beautiful. the most expensive, the cheapest, the youngest, the fattest, the least intelligent, the most popular, the busiest, the fastest, the most important, the least interesting:  All “superlative” expressions have the same meaning as only one.  That is why we use the article “the” with them.  Superlatives by their definition mean only one of something.

    Exercise 2:  Put either a or an in front of the following nouns or noun phrases, please.

    1.  __________     animal                        11.  ____________   unusual house

    2. ___________    taxi cab                      12.  ____________   old car

    3.  ____________    box                             13.  ____________   smelly onion

    4.  ____________    uniform                       14.  ____________   egg sandwich

    5.  ____________    elephant                      15.  ____________   honest person

    6.  ____________    dog                             16.  ____________   good university

    7.  ____________    small egg                     17.  ____________   orange sweater

    8.  ____________    hour                            18.  ____________   apple pie

    9.  ____________    hat                              19.  ____________   American citizen

    10.  ____________  funny man                    20.  ____________   black horse

    Exercise 3:  Fill in the blank spaces with the correct article: AAn,  or The, or nothing.

    1. _______ boy was walking down   _____dark street.   _____   boy was named Mohammed.   _____  street was near  _____ boy’s house.
    2. Everyone needs to have _____ love in their life.   _____  love keeps people happy.
    3. _____ moon can be very beautiful on a cold clear night.
    4. In   ____ morning, I drive a friend to school.   _____ friend lives near my house.  I pick up ____ friend on the corner of 85th Street N. and Greenwood Avenue N.
    5. _____ old lady lives next door to my family.   _____   old lady and my wife don’t like each other.  I try to stay away from   ­­____ old lady.
    6. I had to go to _____ SSC library on Friday to copy this exercise.
    7. I do my homework in _____ evening and always go to bed late   (in, on, at) _____ night.
    8. My wife made   ____ cake last night.  We ate _____ cake after dinner.

    This page titled 1.5.1: Articles is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Don Bissonnette.

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