Articles: A, An & The - English grammar tutorial video lesson
Articles: a, an & the. Learn all about when to use ’a’ or ’an’ and when and how to use ’the.’
Welcome to English Grammar Spot! This lesson is about
’a’, ’an’ and ’the’. Otherwise known as articles. Take a look at the following sentences
The man walked right past me.
A giant spider crawled across the ceiling.
An elephant is a large animal.
All the underlined words here are articles. First I am going to show you how and when to use ’a’. We use ’a’ before a word that starts
with a constant for example: B, C, D, F, G, H, J , K, L, M, N, P. Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z. For example:
A blue bird.
A nice man.
A wonderful dinner.
Hereblue, nice and wonderful all start with consonants. Now I’m going to show you how and when to use ’an’.We use ’an’ before a word that starts with a vowel. And the vowels in the English language are
A, E, I, O, U.
For example:
an apple
an egg
an insect.
Now there are some exceptions. The use of ’a’ or ’an’ depends on the beginning sound so the word might start with a consonant
or a vowel, but we really need to listen to how the word it is pronounced.
For example: hour. We see an ’H’ but we hear a vowel sound at the beginning ’our’ and ’hour’. So what do we do in this case? We use the article ’an.’ Because we hear a vowel sound. So we say
an hour and not a hour.
Another exception: the use of ’a’ and ’an’ depends on the
beginning sound unique. We see a ’U’ but we hear a consonant sound ’you’. So what to do we do we do here?
a unique chance
and not an unique chance. So remember, you have to listen carefully to how the word is pronounced and then you choose whether you use ’a’ or ’an’.
Now we need to talk about the indefinite and the definite article.
We already talked about ’a’ and ’an’. but we also need to talk about ’the’. ’A’ and ’an’ are indefinite articles. They are used to describe one or a number of things, but that also goes for ’the’.
But here ’the’ is the definite article and it is used to describe one or
number of things So what is the difference? The indefinite
article describes things in general. For instance a dog barks. Because that is what dogs do. Or a cat ’miaauws’ The definite article describes specific things. For example when we say
the dog barks, we have a particular dog in mind.
For instance the dog of your neighbours or a dog that we see in the street. Now there is also something that we call
the ’zero article’. Here we do not use an article at all whereas in other languages we might. Sometimes an article is left out. This happens when there’s only one of someone or something. For example:
Sally is head teacher
there’s only one head teacher in school and perhaps most important
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom
there’s only one queen in England.
Sometimes ’the’ is left out. When talking about
seasons in general spring is in the air, not the spring is
in the air but when we talk about a general season we use ’the.’ I visited her in in the spring of 2012. Here I have a
particular moment in mind. Again sometimes ’the’ is left out, for instance when talking about meals in general. When shall we have lunch?
I was very happy with the lunch she served.
And again here we use ’the’ because we have a specific lunch in mind. We also do not use an article when talking about church, hospital, prison , school, university in general. So ’the’ is left out, only when we talk about the function of the building
For instance, he went to university last year. So here we do not have a particular university in mind. Whereas: The university is well situated. This is about a particular university. For instance Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale.
The is left out when we talk about languages. Arabic is difficult to learn. I love learning English.
I thank you for your attention for regular updates please subscribe to or go to .
1 view
248
68
20 hours ago 01:03:47 1
Цифровой рубль, химтрейлы, м-РНК и ИИ - что нам готовят! Геннадий М
3 days ago 00:23:46 5
Хитрый план Путина: что ждёт Россию?
5 days ago 01:13:44 1
Philippe Guillemant : « Nous allons réellement apprendre à vivre ensemble » (interview)
5 days ago 00:18:15 7
⚡️Сармат, Орешник и ярость Путина - кто обманул Президента и где миллиарды
6 days ago 01:51:06 1
⚡️Путин торгуется с Трампом! В3рывы в Питере! Гурулёв уволен! Гулянки в Москве и задержки зарплат
6 days ago 00:55:27 3
У Набиуллиной “новый хозяин“? Ирина Жильцова о цифровом рубле, Маске и России
1 week ago 00:15:48 1
Почему срочники оказались на фронте?! Авиадиспетчеры идут в курьеры! Губернатор в шоке от мэра!
1 week ago 00:17:17 1
⚡️Чиновник раскрыл “правду“ о ВЛАСТИ! Василий Якеменко, НАШИ, Сурков и АП
1 week ago 00:20:13 1
Шойгу, Чубайс и Абрамович: уничтожение элитных кланов и рывок в будущее
1 week ago 01:49:16 1
⚡️Ги6ель чиновников! Протесты в Курске! Ре3ня в школе! Бунт в изоляторе!
1 week ago 00:18:59 15
Вы обязаны дать себя ограбить! Так выстроена система! Как заставить чиновников работать?
1 week ago 00:36:38 1
“Pilleurs d’État“, ces élus qui contournent les lois pour s’en mettre plein les poches
1 week ago 00:27:54 5
Секретные космические лазеры устраивают пожары на Земле?
2 weeks ago 00:12:35 7
How Did Language Start? - Part 1
2 weeks ago 01:51:01 1
Встреча с Фёдором Раззаковым | Сталин против мафии и операция “Амальгама“: “фальшак“ против Сталина
3 weeks ago 00:06:58 4
Témoignages de 3 travailleurs précaires : quand le travail ne permet plus de vivre décemment
3 weeks ago 00:02:17 1
“La tragédie de Novi Sad a jeté une ombre sur la Serbie“ : le Premier ministre annonce sa démission
3 weeks ago 00:01:30 1
Des dizaines de milliers de Palestiniens rentrent chez eux dans le nord de la bande de Gaza
3 weeks ago 00:33:14 6
Оптимизация больниц продолжается! Закрывают детское отделение! Дела против участников СВО!
3 weeks ago 01:03:51 9
Путин, охрана и политическая пустота. Георгий Фёдоров
3 weeks ago 00:19:43 2
5 ans après la première victime du Covid, quel bilan ?
3 weeks ago 00:17:58 1
😂Дерипаска разносит достижения власти! Россия, США, Китай
3 weeks ago 00:10:44 1
Structures Recently Found Inside Earth’s Mantle Shouldn’t Exist
3 weeks ago 00:17:31 1
⚡Шабаш в Давосе! BlackRock, климат, пан-де-мия и Трамп!