Articles
I don't eat beef The beef looks delicious |
We need petrol The car's empty |
There's a ship in the harbour The ship he is on leaves soon |
Many people find the English article system difficult to learn.
What is your first language?
If you language is in this list, it does not use articles:
Polish, Czech, Russian, Slovak, Chinese
languages, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Thai and other
South-East Asian languages and some other European
languages such as Finnish and Basque.
If your language is in this list, it does use articles but often
in a way that is not like English at all:
Greek, Hungarian, Spanish, Italian,
French, Romanian, Catalan, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, German, Dutch, Afrikaans.
The main rules one by one
The first questions
- Am I talking about one of many?
- Does it matter which?
For example:
- I need a chair means that I want to sit down but it does not matter to me which chair you bring.
- I like sweets means that I enjoy eating sweets in general. It does not matter now which sweets we are talking about.
- Information is useful means any information not some particular information is useful.
Now ask: Is it plural, singular or uncountable?
Task 1:
To check, can you put the ticks in the right boxes here? Click on the table when you have an answer. |
Notice that sheep can be both singular and plural. It is one of those words in English which has an irregular plural. There aren't many.
Here's the rule:
If the answers to
question 1 is yes
and the answer to question 2 is
no:
Uncountable or plural: use no article
Singular: use a or an
Task 2:
Can you apply the rule? Click here to test yourself. |
The second questions
- Am I talking about all
of it or them, everywhere?
- Is it plural?
- Is it singular?
- Is it uncountable?
For example:
- Lions are dangerous.
- Sugar is bad for you.
- The printing press was invented in Germany.
- People are generous in my country.
- Clean water is a basic human right.
- Who discovered the Theory of General Relativity?
Task 3: What's the rule? Click here when you have written it down. |
If the answer to question 3 is
yes:
If it is singular: use the
If it is plural or uncountable: use no article
Task 4:
Can you apply the rule? Click here to test yourself. |
The third questions
- Do I mean these, this or this one specifically?
- Is it a person or a place?
For example:
- The lions in that zoo are dangerous.
- The sugar in that bowl is for you.
- The man in the red jacket is his brother.
- John came late.
- Mexico is in North America.
This is the easiest rule:
If the answers to
question 4 is yes: use
the for plural, singular and uncountable nouns
If the answer to question 5 is yes: use
no article
There's no test for this rule – it's too easy!
The three rules
Here's a summary:
- If I am talking about one of many and it doesn't matter
which one:
- If the noun is uncountable or plural: use no article
- If the noun is singular: use a or an
- If I am talking about all of them everywhere:
- If the noun is singular: use the
- If the noun is plural or uncountable: use no article
- If I am talking about this one, this or these
specifically;
- Use the for plural, singular and uncountable nouns
- Use no article for people and places
Task 4:
Now take a test of all three rules. Click here to test yourself. |