1.5.1: Articles
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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 book. The 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 uniform. The 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 coffee. The coffee was from Brazil.
He put some water in a pot. The 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 sun. The 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.
- We need to buy some orange juice. My son drank the orange juice this morning.
- 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.
- My car uses a lot of gasoline. The gasoline is very expensive.
- He spilled some coffee on a carpet. The coffee stained the carpet.
- It took me an hour to get from my house to school in the snow.
- She was an honest woman who had a dishonest husband. The woman divorced the husband.
- 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: A, An, or The, or nothing.
- _______ boy was walking down _____dark street. _____ boy was named Mohammed. _____ street was near _____ boy’s house.
- Everyone needs to have _____ love in their life. _____ love keeps people happy.
- _____ moon can be very beautiful on a cold clear night.
- 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.
- _____ 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.
- I had to go to _____ SSC library on Friday to copy this exercise.
- I do my homework in _____ evening and always go to bed late (in, on, at) _____ night.
- My wife made ____ cake last night. We ate _____ cake after dinner.