Hi and welcome to DiGiLiSh.
I'm your teacher Chris.
Today, for our first lesson, we are going to talk about articles.
There are three articles that we will cover for today's class,
and they are The, A and An.
But, before we begin, what is an article?
Well, to begin with, there are actually two types of articles that we will work with.
The definite article, The,
And the indefinite articles, A and An.
The definite article The is very common.
I'm sure you've seen it lots of times.
The is used when you talk about something that the person you are talking to knows about.
or about something that is important to what you're saying.
"The weather is cold" is an example of where you use it.
"I like the circus", is another.
"The cat is hungry", means that there is a cat and that it is hungry.
It doesn't matter if you talk about something in the singular or the plural form.
So for example,
you say both "The Child" and "The Children".
There is no difference.
Indefinite articles are used when you're just talking about something in general.
Or something that the other person doesn't know about.
"I would like a cat",
means you just want a cat.
There isn't a specific cat you have in mind.
"I ate a hamburger" means you ate just another hamburger.
If you say "I ate THE hamburger",
it means that the person you are telling this to should know which hamburger you're talking about.
If you're not sure which one to use, use A and An!
There are two indefinite articles.
A and An.
But how do you know which one to use?
The answer to that is actually pretty simple.
It depends on the first sound in the noun.
If the first sound is a consonant-sound,
like for example "A snake", "A tiger" or "A dog",
Then it's A.
If it's a vowel-sound, then it's An.
Like with "An apple", "An orange" or "An island".
The vowels are the easiest to keep in mind because there's only five of them.
There's one for each of your fingers.
A
E
I
O
U
Remember that it's the SOUND, and not the letter, that counts.
For example, X is a consonant.
But you pronounce it E X, Ex.
So when you say X-Ray, you say AN X-Ray,
And not A X-Ray.
This is very important.
Sometimes a letter can be both a vowel OR a consonant!
Like horse, or hour.
The H is silent in hour.
so the first sound is actually O.
Hour.
So it's An hour.
In horse, however, you can actually hear the consonant.
H.
Horse
So, obviously, you're going to go with A.
A Horse.
Let's rehearse what we've talked about today.
We've talked about definite, and indefinite articles.
Definite articles are The,
and they are used when you're talking about something the other person knows about.
For example, "The cat is hungry",
or, "The car is new".
There is a cat, or a car, that you are talking about.
Indefinite articles, A and An,
are used when you're talking about something the other person doesn't know about.
Or, something in general.
"I have a cat", or "That was an X-Ray".
A-nouns start with a consonant-sound,
for example "Tiger", "Giraffe", "Horse".
An-nouns start with a vowel-sound,
for example "Orange", "Apple" or "Hour".
And remember,
there are five vowels that you need to keep in mind.
They are A, E, I, O and U.