Articles

Defining Articles

• Indefinite articles a and an• We use indefinite articles “a” and “an” only

before singular count nouns that aren’t specific and are being mentioned for the first time.

Examples:

• Examples: • I want to buy a cat.• There is a delicious cake in the fridge.• -When do we use “a”? • We use “a” before a noun or an adjective+noun

that begins with a consonant sound.• -When do we use “an”?• We use “an” before a noun or an ajective+noun

that begins with a vowel sound.

Important!

• Letters like “H” and “U” can be problematic. Sometimes they will sound like vowels and other times they will sound like consonant.

i.e:Hour -> an hour Hobo -> a hobo University -> a universityUmbrella -> an umbrella

Definite article the

The is to be used when:

•When we are talking about something specific:

– The dog that lives in my neighbor’s house is so cute!

– The car I bought from my sister is good as a new one.

• When the speaker and the listener are talking about the same specific item. – “Don’t forget to close the door, son!”

• When we are referring to something the second time and in all other references to the same noun.– First reference: Mom, I bought a new car last

week. – Second reference: The car is red! I know it is

your favorite color.

• When we use the superlative form of an adjective, which means with the word most or with the ending –est. – This is the most wonderful/best place I’ve

ever been to!

• For names of countries that look plural, including the ones that end in –s or have the words united, union, republic, or kingdom: – The United States of America, The

Philippines…

• For parts of something, like parts of a place, of an object… Except for body parts.– I went to my friend’s new apartment

yesterday. Her bedroom is beautiful! The walls are red and there are lots of paintings, the bed is very large and cozy.

• Use it with most bodies of water except individual lakes.– The Mississippi River.

• Use it with geographic parts of the globe and geographic areas, deserts and peninsulas.– The equator. – The north.

No article

• There are some cases in English that don’t need the use of articles.

• When don’t we put articles?

• When you want to talk about a category or group in general.

• Dogs are man’s best friends.

• Before abstract nouns like feelings or ideas.

• Ignorance is bliss.

• Patience is a virtue.

Teaching Articles to ELLs

• When planning a class about articles, the T must know the native language of those being taught. By doing this, the T has to study how many articles there are and how the articles are used in their native tongue.

• When teaching languages that have no articles the concept of what is an article must be introduced.

• When teaching languages that have only one article, one must know how this article is used and try to adapt the content of the class to the Ss reality.

• Some languages have as many articles as English does. However, these articles may not behave the same way they do in English; or cannot be used in the same situations to express the same ideas.