A. An.The. Or, nothing? When do we use these articles? I'm Arnel from Arnel's
Everyday English and today we're looking at these.
First, we use a with a consonant sound. And we use an with a vowel sound. Vowel?
Consonant? Vowels are: a e i o u and consonants are all the other letters. I
need to tell you, normally in spoken English we pronounce
a, uh. So listen out for that. I have an Apple, vowel sound ah, an. I have an
orange. I have an umbrella. I have an orangutan... I have a dog, the consonant
sound. I have a shoe. I have a cup of coffee. A + consonant sounds, a +
vowel sound. But, let's look at a few exceptions: I go to a university. He is a
unique person. I need an x-ray. So why do I have a with u?
U is a vowel. It's because of the sound. University is pronounced y we have
the Y consonant sound. Again he is a y y unique person, so of course we have u the
vowel but, we need a consonant sound. An x-ray? X is a consonant, e= x-ray. Let's look
at a and an. First we use a or an with a singular countable
noun when we speak about something in general. I need a pen. do you have a pen?
Do I need a specific pen? I don't care, any pen is fine. What did you do last
night? I watched a movie. Which movie? It doesn't matter, I'm not being specific, a
an in general. We also use these when we introduce something for the first time
yesterday I saw a seagull eating a hamburger in the middle of the street. So,
it's the first time I'm telling you, a or an. When speaking about someone's job, I'm
a teacher you're an engineer. Next rule, when we want to say one with big numbers.
I need a hundred roses, I need 100 roses. I've eaten a thousand mangoes in my life.
A thousand ,one thousand. How many times? I go to the gym twice a week. I have a
coffee three times a day. Did you know hummingbirds can flap their
wings 70 times a second? Okay so we looked at the rules for a and an, let's
continue with: the. Remember early in the video I said I need a pen, do you have a
pen? I need a pen, do you have a pen? See, I did say it! You already know we use a or
an for something in general. The is specific. Yes, I bought the sofa.
Here both the speaker and the listener know exactly which sofa I'm speaking
about, it's clear when we use the we use: the. We use the when we mention something for the
second time. I saw a seagull eating a hamburger in the middle of the street.
Can you believe it, the seagull finished the hamburger in about two
minutes. Now I'm repeating my subjects, I use the. With superlatives, coffee is the
best drink in the world. You are the smartest person I know.
I think cheetahs are the fastest animal in the world. With groups of society. The
rich, the poor, the homeless, the youth. Robin Hood steals from the rich and
gives to the poor. When there's only one of something. The Sun, the moon. the government,
the Queen. With mountain ranges, oceans, seas, rivers, the Alps, the Pacific, the
Mediterranean, the Thames, the Orkney Islands, lie in the Atlantic. With plural
countries. What do I mean by plural countries? We say: the United Kingdom
because there's many parts together. We say the United States, the Netherlands. We
have that s, there's a plural there. The Philippines, the with plural countries.
With instruments. I can play the piano. My brother can play
the guitar very well. With morning, afternoon and evening. See you in the
morning. I usually work in the afternoons. The evenings are our busiest time. But, we
say at night, not at the the night. We've already looked at so many different
rules I hope you're feeling okay! Now, I need to tell you there's always
exceptions, you know this. If you remember rule number five, there's only one of
something, we use the. But there are always exceptions. So we say Buckingham
Palace but we say the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower. So you have the grammatical
rules and just be prepared to become familiar with different exceptions. No
an, no a, no the. We're speaking about zero article, we also need to know this.
So a quick review: I want a dog. A with countable nouns, general. It doesn't
matter. I want a dog. I want the dog from that movie Benji. The specific dog. I love
dogs. When we use a plural countable noun or an uncountable noun, we don't use an
article when we speak about it in general. I love dogs, they're my favorite
animal. Do I want to be specific? I love the dogs from that TV show. Streets, towns,
cities, countries and specific mountains. I live in New York City on Fulham Road.
The New York City? The Fulham Road? No. I want to climb Mount Everest one day. Not
the Mount Everest. Fantastic, you've done an excellent
job, there are a lot of rules to remember! So, what I want you to do is write me an
example sentence using: a, and, the and no article. can you do it? Don't forget to
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