hi i'm alexandra in today's lesson i am
going to teach a basic english video
about the indefinite articles ah
and an
and how to use them before a noun
let's look at the board let's focus on a
and an
when do we use ah
and an
all right so first sentence here
i'm
blank
woman
so woman starts with a
w the answer here is
ah
i'm a woman
okay
second one
i'm
blank
artist
artist starts with an a
so
the answer is an
i'm an artist
all right now if we keep going we've got
a little bit longer sentence
my niece is
blank
university student
so university starts with the vowel you
right that's the letter u it's a vowel
so what's the answer
my niece is
a university student okay put that in
there's an ah okay last question
my aunt is
blank
honest person is it a or an
well honest has an h right it starts
with the consonant h
and it's pronounced honest
my and is
an
honest person
all right so if you don't understand
when or why to use a or am
then this is the video for you
i will explain exactly when to use a and
and before a noun
also keep watching until the end because
there will be homework and a quiz so
let's get started
before we learn about a and an
it's important to know what consonants
and vowels are
the english alphabet has 26 letters
21 letters are consonants and there are
five main vowels
a
e
i
o
u
now is a good time to learn the rule of
when to use a and when to use n before a
noun
as young learners your english teacher
probably taught you this rule
if a noun begins with a consonant we use
ah
if a noun begins with a vowel we use an
let's take a look at the board again to
check this rule
first we have
a
beg
bag starts with a b
that's a consonant
so a beg
second we have a
cat
cat starts with c
that's a consonant
so this is correct
a cat
next we have
an
apple
apple starts with a
which is a vowel so an is correct
then we have an eraser
eraser starts with an e
e is a vowel
this is correct
next is an iron
iron starts with an i i is a vowel and
iron is correct
then an oven
oven starts with an o o is a vowel this
is also right
and finally an umbrella
umbrella starts with a u u is a vowel
this is correct
if you look at it it's the vowels
a
e
i
o
u
so it looks like the rule is working
very well
but actually this is not the real rule
let's take a look at the next board
so again let's look at these two first
examples
ah cat
cat starts with a c that's a consonant
that's right
an apple
apple starts with an a that's a vowel so
that's also correct
an apple
now let's look at these two
university
university starts with a u
so
u is a vowel
why does it go with ah
a university
and what about this one an
hour
hour starts with an h
and h is a consonant
so why is it an hour
you can see
ab before a vowel
and an before a consonant
the real rule is
ah comes before a consonant sound
and an comes before a vowel sound
c is a consonant sound
so we use ah
ah
is a vowel sound
so we use an
the u
in university
sounds like yeah
yeah is the y sound
and y is a consonant because it has that
y consonant sound
we use ah
and h
is silent
our begins with a vowel sound
our
it has that vowel sound
we use an
so it's important when choosing a or an
not to focus just on the letter
but also the sound that the letter is
making
all right let's move on
all right let's take a look at these
four examples
remember
don't look at the letter
but listen to the sound that it makes
a
uniform
uniform starts with the consonant sound
y
so it gets ah
again a european
european also starts with the consonant
sound
so a european
am
honor
remember before we saw hour
and the h in honor and hour is silent
so it starts with the vowel sound
so an honor
now look at this one
an f b i agent
let's focus on the f the sound that the
f makes
f
so it's a vowel sound so it gets an
an fbi agent
all right let's move on to some extra
practice
all right let's practice using a
let's meet in
our
listen closely
hour
we know from before that the h is silent
so let's meet in an hour
okay
he will study
mba course
listen closely to m b a
m
m b a
obviously m is the vowel sound
so he will study an mba course
she's
happy student
okay look up here here the h was silent
but here we pronounce the consonant h
sound
happy
ha
happy student
so
she's a happy student
he has
excellent score
listen closely
excellent
that's a clearly a vowel sound
so he has an excellent score
that's
useless book
listen closely here
useless
yeah it's that consonant y sound
useless
so
that's
a useless book
all right great students let's move on
now you know when to use ah
and and before a noun
but you're not finished
this video is not enough practice
it's time for homework and a quiz
please check the description of the
video to find links to the class
homework and a quiz
also be sure to comment below and let me
know if you have any questions
if you want to see more videos from me
in the future please remember to like
this video and watch my other videos too
bye-bye
[Music]
you