a/ The Indefinite Articles
Singular A / AN
(A) is used before singular
nouns beginning with a consonant sound .
Examples :
A happy family.
A hag.
A compartment.
A man.
A beautiful garden.
A tree.
A lucky fellow.
A meeting.
A heap of broken image.
A nice morning.
(AN) is used before a word
beginning with a vowel or voiceless or weak (H).
The vowels are = A,O,U,E,I
An
orange
An
hour
An
egg
An
honest man
An
inkpot
An
angry woman
* Some words start with a vowel but
the first sound is a consonant and thus (A) must be used .
Examples :
A
European
A
university
A useful
thing
A
one-eyed man
No articles is used with indefinite
plural nouns.
Examples :
Devils laugh.
Boys play.
Flowers wither.
Birds sing.
Aeroplanes are fast.
Horses run.
Mothers are kind to children.
* Try to do this exercise :
Add (A) or (AN) when necessary.
1.That is ….great idea.
2. Take …..advice from….expert.
3. What …..wonderful surprise!
4. I am starting ….. new life.
5. I want …. glass of lemonade with
…. piece of sugar in it.
b/ The Definite Article
"The" is used :
1- When we are thinking of one
particular thing.
For example :
He is looking for a job.
Did he got the job he applied for?
2- When it is clear in the
situation which thing or person we mean
The hotel we stayed in is very nice.
I want to see the manager of the firm.
3- When there is only one of
something : the sun ,the moon ,the earth, etc.
4- Before “same” ( the same)
Her dress is the same as mine.
5- Before superlatives.
The Amazone is the longest river in the world.
6- When we are thinking of something
as a general idea.
He goes to the cinema every weekend.
7- The + adjective
We use the + adjective(without
a noun) to talk about groups of people.
Example:
The young, the old, the rich, the
poor, the injured etc ….
8- The + nationality
We use "the" with some nationality adjectives to mean " the people
of that country.
For example:
The Americans
The French
The English etc…
9- We use the + a singular
countable noun to talk about a type of animals, machines etc…
For example :
The giraffe is the tallest animal.
The piano is my favorite instrument.
10- With the names of canals,
rivers, seas, oceans, etc…
and in names with "Republic" "Kingdom" " States" etc…
such as the United States of
America.
The United Kingdom
Omission of the definite article :
a- We don’t use “the” when we are
talking about things or people in general .
For example :
- I’m afraid of dogs.
- All cars have wheels.
b- With uncountable nouns
- Sugar is not good for you .
- We use "the" with
the nouns mentioned above if they are qualified
For example :
Can you pass the sugar on the table?
*- Countable and uncountable nouns.
A noun can be countable or
uncountable .
1) A countable noun can be
singular (apple) or plural (apples).
- I eat an apple every day.
2) An uncountable noun has only one
form
I eat rice every day.
I like rice.
3) countable nouns are things we
can count, so we can "one
apples" etc...
4) Uncountable nouns are things we
cannot count. We cannot say"one rice" two rices" etc …
5) We can use a/an with singular
countable nouns: a book, a student, an egg.
6) We can’t use singular countable
nouns alone (without a/an/the/ etc …)
I want an apple (not I want apple).
7) We can’t use a/an/an with
uncountable nouns.
We do not say “a rice” or “a water”
but we can say a bowl of rice, a drop of water.
