1.
Articles -
Notes
What is an article?
Basically, articles are either definite or indefinite.
They combine to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the
noun.
·
The definite article is the.
·
The indefinite article is a
/ an.
The indefinite article a or an:
The article a / an is used when we don't
specify the things or people we are talking about:
·
I met a friend.
·
I work in a factory in New
York.
·
I borrowed a pencil from a
passenger sitting next to me.
The indefinite article a is used before a consonant
sound:
·
a dog.; a
pilot; a teacher.; a university
NOTE:
Although 'university' starts with the vowel 'u', it is not pronounced as such. It is pronounced as a consonant sound /ju:.niv3:.si.ti/
Although 'university' starts with the vowel 'u', it is not pronounced as such. It is pronounced as a consonant sound /ju:.niv3:.si.ti/
The indefinite article an is used before a vowel
sound:
·
an engineer.
·
an elephant.
·
an athlete
The definite article the:
It's used when the speaker talks about a specific object
that both the person speaking and the listener know.
·
The
car over there is fast.
·
The
president of the United States is giving a speech tonight.
When we speak of something or someone for the first time we
use a or an, the next time we repeat that object we use the
definite article the.
·
I live in a house. The
house is quite old and has four bedrooms.
·
I ate in a Chinese
restaurant. The restaurant was very good.
No article:
1. Do not use an article with countries, states, counties or
provinces, lakes and mountains except when the country is a collection of states
such as "The United States".
·
He lives in Washington near Mount
Rainier.
·
They live in Northern British
Columbia.
·
They climbed Mount Everest.
2. we do not normally use an article with plurals and uncountable
nouns to talk about things in general.:
·
He writes books.
·
She likes sweets.
·
Do you like jazz music?
·
She ate bread with butter in the
morning.
Countable and uncountable nouns
The can be used with uncountable
nouns, or the article can be dropped entirely as mentioned above.
1.
"The two countries reached the
peace after a long disastrous war" (some specific peace treaty) or
"The two countries reached peace after a long disastrous war"
(any peace).
2.
"He drank the water"
(some specific water- for example, the water his wife brought him from the
kitchen) or "He drank water." (any water)
It is unusual to use a/an for uncountable nouns. You
can't say "I'd like a milk"
a/an can be used only with countable
nouns.
1.
I'd like a piece of
cake.
2.
I lent him a book.
3.
I drank a cup of tea.
------------------(Source: www.myenglishpages.com)
--------------------
NOOJILLA SRINIVAS
Lecturer in English
Govt. Degree College,
Alamuru,
Andhra pradesh - India
M: 7981862200
Very helpful sir.
ReplyDeleteWould you please tell me about the usage of
"lest"