hey guys welcome to my channel today I'm
gonna teach you the most common mistake
in English which is articles and I
forget them I omit them because I'm
originally from Russia and in Russia we
don't have articles it's easier for
Germans because you guys have articles
Italians have articles by the way let me
know in comments below what language is
your native language and whether you
have articles or not because if you do
it's easier for you but again there are
two articles a and and we use a we use
it to talk about objects that we
encounter for the first time in our
speech for the first time in this
conversation and we use the we mean
something specific so let's start with
the first rule something specific is
always the for example marina where did
you get the dress that you wore
yesterday this is a very specific dress
I only have one dress and I'm pretty
sure she means the dress that I was
wearing yesterday and that was the
specific white dress whatever so this is
a very specific thing but if I'm asking
somebody can you get me a dress when you
go shopping I'm not asking for a
particular dress I just need a dress and
whatever a dress you can find that suits
me just get it so could you get me a
dress when you go shopping so see the
differences in the first example with
the specific dress I wore yesterday I
meant the dress that I wore yesterday
when I'm asking to buy a random dress
this is a dress another thing to
remember we only use a when we talk
about single object so we cannot say a
dresses there's this wrong room don't do
that but if a word starts with a vowel a
e o you okay you know well is right we
replace a with M an apple an eggplant
and elephant another general rule is
when you talk about something for the
first time you say a when you mention it
in your conversation for the second time
you use that for example yesterday I
went to a party I mentioned it for the
first time but in the second sentence I
would say the party was amazing
because
I've already stated that I will be
talking about a specific party and in
the second sentence I'm referring to
that specific party so it's the body now
okay or another example yesterday I
bought an apple you know just surrender
Apple that Apple turned out to be rotten
so taking him back to the store today
okay so first I'm not measuring a
particular Apple I just bought an apple
doesn't matter which apple doesn't
matter if it's big doesn't matter if
it's small just an apple but then when
I'm talking that it's rotten
I already mean that Apple that it's in
my fridge salsa Apple okay
however if we're talking about an object
that is one-of-a-kind
we always use that that one the Sun the
Black Sea of The Simpsons so we know
that there is only one one that's why we
always say the moon we know that there
is one Sun so say that Sun again we only
know that there's just one family when
we're talking about we know that we're
talking about that Simpsons right this
is the movie so whenever it's something
one-of-a-kind it's the uncountable nouns
what are uncountable nouns porridge Oh
meal milk whatever you cannot count cuz
we were talking about porridge you
cannot really count all the seats that
are there and when we're talking about
milk you cannot really count the cells
yes you can measure volume but that's
different
we're talking about counting so
uncountable nouns means you cannot count
them right so with uncountable nouns
we don't use any articles it's always I
like oatmeal can you get me some oatmeal
can you make some porridge for breakfast
use some right can I have some milk I
drink milk for breakfast the only way
you would be able to count milk is by
adding glasses can you give me a glass
of milk and then you have this eight
okay but this a refers to glass not to
milk and the second serie when we don't
use an article with noun says when we
have plural countable nouns bicycles
computers cameras bloggers so whenever
these words appear in a sense
we don't know use any articles I have
three computers at home
I like watching bloggers I love bicycles
but why articles are so confusing
because they're always always always
exclusions for example as there is a
store in your house and they sell
specific milk and you want to highlight
that you like the milk from that store
because it's one of a kind you really
mean that milk and you cannot get it
anywhere else then you can say oh my god
I love the milk from that store because
you're being specific and again I just
mentioned that with milk we don't use
anything but we don't use anything or a
when we don't mention specific milk we
just mentioned milk as food but if we
mean some kind of milk that it's only
sold in a store that's one block away or
in your house say the same applies to
countable nouns in plural forms if that
shop also sells apples that you love you
can say oh I love the apples from that
store they are the best in the world and
people realize that you mean specific
apples that are only sold there and
they're one-of-a-kind okay please
remember that and feel free whenever
you're watching this video if it's
confusing feel free to stop feel free to
open your exercise book rewind the video
and write everything down again because
I know it's super confusing and I know
even like super advanced students make
mistakes in articles so this topic is
very important it's crucial but I'm here
to help there's a quite similar rule for
abstract nouns and when you're talking
about something in general you don't
need an article for example information
on the Internet is very useful so
information is this abstract noun you
don't mean any specific information you
just mean that information that's
available to
the Internet is very useful but again
just to compare when you use particular
information that you received that
information that I've read on Wikipedia
regarding YouTube is super useful then
you need to insert the definite articles
uh because you mean some specific
information but when you're talking
about information in general you don't
use articles at all okay never use
articles with proper nouns Tuesday
Monday New York you can distinguish
those proper nouns by the capital letter
that they start with New York is with
capital letters Washington DC Russia
London Tuesday Monday Wednesday February
March
all of those nouns do not require an
article okay
never use articles for the news of the
countries Dimitri makes this mistake
all the time to keep correcting him
Russia France Monaco all of those
countries do not require an article but
of course there are exclusions to this
rule if a country's name consists of
several words the United Kingdom because
that refers to Kingdom here so the
United Kingdom the United States of
America so whenever the name consists of
several nouns you use also no articles
when you speak about languages and
remember at the beginning of this video
I asked you to write a comment below
what language you speak and if you have
articles in that language so you can say
I speak French and there is no article I
speak Russian and there are no articles
in Russian so we don't have any article
before the name of the language and the
last but not the least when you're
talking about meals don't use articles
I've already had lunch today
I've already had breakfast let's head
out to dinner but again we're just
talking about nonspecific meals just you
know stating that we had meal but if you
want to say that you are sick from the
dinner you had yesterday
then you need definite article because
you mean that specific dinner we
probably ate sushi and you got food
poisoning so when you mean is
dinner it would probably be something in
the past uh use of them that was there
for me guys I hope it wasn't too
confusing I know it's like articles are
super confusing feel free to re-watch
the video feel free to save it if you'll
read to download it or whatever and we
wash it later because you know you're
gonna get back to this topic over and
over again because again there are so
many exclusions to the rules that I've
given you there are so many specific
situations and you just have to you know
know about them but thank you so much
for watching this I'm looking forward to
reading your comments and if you know
yet subscribe to this channel the red
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Marina thank you so much and I will see
you soon in the next videos