In this lesson I will discuss the following questions:
a) What roles do articles play in a sentence?
a) What roles do articles play in a sentence?
USES OF ARTICLES
LESSON 12
Uses of articles:
1. We use a/an to talk about something for the first time.
e.g. I saw Avik yesterday. He was wearing a T-shirt.
2. We use the with a singular noun to talk about something we have already mentioned. Here, the speaker gives more information about something.
e.g. Avik was wearing a new T- shirt. The T-shirt had red stripes.
3. We use a/an to talk about one thing or person when there are many and we are not specifying which one. We are not interested in which one or we don't know which one.
e.g. I bought this dress in a shop last week.(the dress is important,not
the shop)
4. We use the when we are specifying which thing or person we are talking about.
e.g.I bought this dress from the shop next to the library. (Which shop?The shop next to the library.)
5. We use the if it is clear what we are talking about and there are no other
possibilities:
e.g. The players are coming onto the field.( the players of this match and the court for this match)
We use a/an for a type of job:
• My brother is a doctor. (not... is doctor.)
We use the for a specific job or job title that only one person has:
• His father is the Managing Director of this company
Some examples with a/an, the and no article:
• That's a nice song.
• I like the music in that film.
• Ilike listening to music.(music in general, so no article)
We can only use a/an with a countable noun. A countable noun can have a plural form and may describe something that exists in separate,individual forms:
• She has a very beautiful doll ('doll' is a countable noun.)
• She has a few dolls. ('dolls' is the plural form of 'doll')
We cannot use a/an with an uncountable noun. An uncountable noun has no plural form and describes something that does not exist in individual examples that can be 'counted' e.g. music, education, poitics,food, water, weather,work, meat, rice, bread.
I listened to a music (wrong)
(it is not possible to talk about different musics.)
We can use the with singular and plural enumerable nouns:
• The teacher arrived ahd spoke to the students.
We can use the with uncountabe nouns:
• The food was good and I really liked the curry.
More uses of articles
We use the with plural nouns to talk about specific things or people:
• I like the vegetables in this dish.(these particular vegetables)
• I like the students. (students of my class)
We do not use an article before a plural noun when we are talking about both things or people in general:
• Young children often don't like vegetables. (young children in general and vegetables in general)
We use the with an uncountable noun to talk about a particular type or example of something:
• I put the books into my bag. (particular books)
We do not use an article with an uncountable noun when we are talking about something in general:
• Books play a crucial role in our life.(books in general and life in general)
We do not use the with:
• the names of most countries (except the USA and the UK):
She comes from India and she lives in the US.
Note: For names of countries having various parts, we use 'the'. e.g. the USA, the UK.
• the names of continents or languages:
1. She comes from Australia (not from the Australia)
2. Do you speak Bangla? (not the Bangla)
• types of music, but we can use the with musical instruments:
1. He likes classical music. (not the classical music)
2. He plays the guitar in a band.
• meals, subjects for study, sports and games:
1. What did you have for brekfast? (not the breakfast)
2. She is very good at maths (not the maths)
3. I dont know how to play chess. (not the chess)
★Next,I will talk about Linking Words
Also read this:
Please follow my blog for further update
No comments