Definite and indefinite articles

 

A/an and the: meaning

A/an and the are articles. They are a type of determiner and they go before a noun.

A/an before a noun shows that what is referred to is not already known to the speaker, listener, writer and/or reader (it is the indefinite article):

Do you have a car?

A:

Do you live in a house?

B:

No, actually, I live in an apartment.

The before a noun shows that what is referred to is already known to the speaker, listener, writer and/or reader (it is the definite article):

Where did we park the car? (The speaker and the listener know what car is being referred to.)

We had to paint the apartment before we sold it. (The speaker and the listener know what apartment is being referred to.)

The makes a noun specific.

Compare

Have you been to anice rink?	The speaker is not asking about any one specific ice rink but is asking whether they have been to any ice rink (an doesn’t refer to a specific ice rink)
Have you been to the ice rink?	The speaker and listener know the ice rink which is being referred to (e.g. the one in their town/the local one). The makes the noun ice rink specific.

Not specific	Specific (‘the one you and I know’)
Would you like an apple?	Would you like to try the apple pie?
Do you have a cat?	Have you seen the cat?

 

Softening Language

grammarteacher Jul 31

When do we use articles?

 

When do we use articles?

A/an and the with types of nouns

Countable nouns

We only use a/an with singular countable nouns:

I have a sister and a brother.

That was an excellent meal.

We can use the with singular and plural countable nouns:

The lion roared.	The tree fell.
The lions roared.	The trees fell.

Uncountable nouns

 

We don’t use a/an before uncountable nouns:

Could I have rice instead of potatoes with my fish?

Not: Could I have a rice

I hope we have nice weather.

Not: I hope we have a nice weather.

We can use the before uncountable nouns when they refer to a specific example:

The rice we bought in the Thai shop is much better than the supermarket rice.

The weather was awful last summer.

To talk about an individual quantity or more than one quantity of an uncountable noun, we use expressions such as a bit of, a piece of or a [specific measure] of:

That’s an amazing bit of news.

Not: That’s an amazing news.

We just made a big bowl of pasta.

Not: We just made a pasta.

Could I have a litre of milk, please?

Not: Could I have a milk, please?

 

Questions for Meetings

grammarteacher Jul 23

Her’s a new video I made about answering questions in meetings. Click here.

Fact Of The Day:

 

Why We Call Them Sheriff

The word come sheriff comes from the two words “Shire” and “Reeve”. Shire refers to land or county, while Reeve is the official who was in charge. Shire Reeve then became sheriff.

How do we pronounce the

 

How do we pronounce the?

We pronounce the in two ways depending on whether the sound which comes after the is a vowel or a consonant:

/ði:/ before vowel sounds

/ði: eksɪt/ the exit

/ði: æpəl/ the apple

/ðə/ before consonant sounds

/ðə ti:m/ the team

/ðə ju:niən/ the union