Articles
The 3 articles in English are a, an and the. The learner has to decide noun-by-noun which one of the articles to use*. In fact, there are 4 choices to make, because sometimes no article is necessary. Native-speakers, of course, use the articles correctly without thinking in everyday spoken language. English learners, on the other hand, need to have some guidelines for making the right choice - particularly those learners whose own language does not have articles, such as Japanese or Korean. The guidelines that follow here should help ESL students to a basic understanding of English article use.
The most important first step in choosing the correct article is to categorize the noun as countable or uncountable in its context**:
- A countable noun is a noun that can have a number in front of it: 1 teacher, 3 books, 76 trombones, 1,000,000 people.
- An uncountable noun is a noun that cannot have a number put in front of it: 1 water, 2 lucks, 10 airs, 21 oils, 39 information. Once you have correctly categorized the noun (using your dictionary if necessary), the following "rules" apply:
Uncountable nouns
· You cannot say a/an with an uncountable noun.
· You cannot put a number in front of an uncountable noun. (You cannot make an uncountable noun plural.)
· You use an uncountable noun with no article if you mean that thing in general.
· You use the with an uncountable noun when you are talking about a particular example of that thing.
Count nouns
· You can put a number in front of a count noun. (You can make a count noun plural.)
· You can put both a/an and the in front of a count noun.
· You must put an article in front of a singular count noun.
· You use a plural count noun with no article if you mean all or any of that thing.
· You usually use a/an with a count noun the first time you say or write that noun.
· You use the with count nouns:
o the second and subsequent times you use the noun in a piece of speech or writing
o when the listener knows what you are referring to (maybe because there is only one of that thing)
· You use an (not a) when the next word (adverb, adjective, noun) starts with a vowel sound.
Note:
· The above rules apply whether there is or there is not an adjective in front of the noun.
· Some nouns can be either count or uncountable, depending on the context and meaning:
o Do you have paper? I want to draw a picture. (uncountable = a sheet of paper)
o Can you get me a paper when you’re at the shop? (count = a newspaper)
· Uncountable nouns are often preceded by phrases such as: a lot of .. (luck), a piece of .. (cake), a bottle of .. (milk), a grain of .. (rice).
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