A, AN, THE - Articles in English
A, AN, THE - Articles in English
http://www.engvid.com/ ‘I saw A movie last night’ or ‘I saw THE movie last night’? A, AN, and THE are called articles and they can be very confusing. Learn exactly when and how to use articles in English in this important grammar lesson! http://www.engvid.com/a-an-the-articl…
Content
0 -> Hello, and welcome to the next video. Today,
I'm going to teach you about a very difficult,
11.04 -> confusing, fun, maybe, grammar point called
"articles". Really? Yeah. Articles are confusing.
23 -> There are many, many rules in English about
articles. I do not have the time, the energy
32 -> to teach you all of them,
but I'll do my best. Okay?
37 -> What are articles, first of all? Articles are
"a", "an", and "the". Articles come before
46.96 -> a noun. A noun is a person, a place, or a
thing. So I'm going to generalize here and
60.96 -> say that before most nouns in English, you
have to use an article. Of course, there are
68.96 -> millions of exceptions to what I've just said.
Sometimes, we do not use an article with a
75.92 -> noun. That's a whole other lesson,
a whole other time warp for your brain.
81.92 -> We're going to stick to these ones. When to
use "a", "an", and "the" before a noun in
88.92 -> a proper English sentence. We use these when
we speak, when we write, and they're very
95.92 -> important in grammar. So there's no way
to avoid these. I'll help you. Don't worry.
102.88 -> The first one is "an". "An" is easy. It's
the easiest. We'll do this one first. "An"
109.88 -> is a singular noun. It's used in a singular
noun. It's an article. We use it before the
119.88 -> noun that starts with a vowel. Now,
the pronunciation of this word sounds
126.84 -> like "vowel". The vowels in English, we have
five vowels in English. They are "a", "e",
141.84 -> "i", "u", and "u". Now,
everyone who speaks Spanish, Portuguese,
152.8 -> Italian, any of our Latin American friends
or our Latin language speakers, you're going
159.8 -> to mix up these two vowels, "e" and "i".
Let me teach you one thing that'll help you.
164.8 -> If you can remember that you have to dot your
"i", you're going to get the pronunciation
172.8 -> of this word. So this word or this letter
-- sorry. When you write this letter, you
178.76 -> always have to put a dot in the middle of a
word. So you're going to remember that this
185.76 -> "i", you can make a nice little "i" here to
help you. So "i". When you write this word
193.76 -> by itself, you have to use a capital. So this
would only be in the middle of a word. But
198.72 -> the pronunciation is the same. "i". So if you
have a vowel -- "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" -- that
208.72 -> begins the noun, you have to use "an". For
example, "i". We have to say "an i" because
224.68 -> the word "i" begins with a vowel. If the word
begins with this letter "i" -- for example,
231.68 -> "ice cream". We have to say, "I'd like an
ice cream." Do you like ice cream? Or if the
242.68 -> word begins with a vowel sound. What is a
vowel sound, Ronnie? A vowel sound is usually
249.64 -> always the letter "h". For example, the word
"hour". We do not even say the "h" word. It
259.64 -> sounds like we're saying "hour". So because
this word "hour" sounds like a vowel, because
267.6 -> the "h" is silent, we have to say "an hour".
Okay? You got it? You with me? "An hour". So
279.6 -> "an" we use before a vowel or before a vowel
sound, usually a noun that begins with an
290.56 -> "h". The next one is "a", the very first letter
of our alphabet. "A" is a vowel. Don't let
304.56 -> that confuse you. "A" we use for, again, a
singular noun. All of these are going to be
311.56 -> used with singular nouns. If the noun is plural,
if the noun has an "s", do not use an article.
318.52 -> So "a" we use for a singular noun in a general
form. You can think of this easier as replacing
332.52 -> it with the word "any". So if you go to a
coffee shop and they have five muffins, and
342.52 -> they're all the same muffin, you're going to
say to the person that works at the coffee
347.48 -> shop, "Hello, I'd like a muffin." You do not
get to choose or pick what muffin you get.
360.48 -> You can choose the flavor, but you cannot
specifically choose which muffin you would
365.48 -> like. It's the same as saying "any". It's
like saying, "I'd like any muffin. Just give
374.44 -> me a muffin. I want a muffin." "I'd like anything.
Just give me something." It's used for when
381.44 -> you don't care which one it is.
You just want one of something.
385.44 -> "A". If my nose was stuffy and I had to blow
my nose, I would ask someone, "Do you have
392.44 -> a Kleenex? I don't have to go through the
box of Kleenexes." "No, I don't want that
401.4 -> one." "Yes, this -- no." You're just going
to get a Kleenex, and you're going to blow
407.4 -> your nose. So "a" and "an", the only
difference is "an" you use before a vowel.
417.36 -> As an example, you can say, "I'd like a cookie."
I was going to write "coffee". Maybe I want
432.36 -> a coffee right now. But I would definitely
rather have a cookie. I don't care which cookie
439.36 -> you give me. Just give me a cookie. I'm a
cookie monster. Okay? So "I'd like a cookie.
445.32 -> I'd like any cookie." The next
is "the". The next is "the". "The"
454.32 -> is opposite to "a". "The" means something
very, very, very specific. General and specific
462.32 -> are opposites. This means you actually choose
which one you are going to get. Think about
471.28 -> this when you go shopping. You do not walk
into a store and go, "Hi. Could I have a shirt?
479.28 -> I don't care what it looks like. I don't care
how much it is. Just give me a shirt." This
485.28 -> never happens. Ladies, when you go shopping
for shoes, you just don't go into the shoe
492.28 -> store and say, "Just a pair of shoes, please.
Just a pair of shoes. Don't care. Size 8,
499.24 -> fine, anything." No. We want to go through
all of the shoes. We want to try them all
504.24 -> on. We want to get a handbag and match them
with our shoes and choose the shoes of our
511.24 -> dreams. So you're going to not say "a pair
of shoes". You're going to say "the shoes".
521.2 -> Another very confusing thing about "the" is
the second time you talk about the same noun
533.2 -> in a phrase, you have to put the second noun
with "the". For example, this is a little
543.16 -> more difficult. "I bought some fruit." "Fruit" is
an uncountable noun. If the noun is uncountable,
554.16 -> we do not use an article. "I bought some fruit.
The fruit was bad." "But Ronnie, you just
564.16 -> said if it's an uncountable noun, we don't
use an article. What are you doing? Have you
571.12 -> lost your mind?" No. This is a grammar rule.
The first time I talk about the fruit, I use
578.12 -> no article because it's uncountable. But the
second time I'm talking about the same noun,
586.12 -> I have to. I don't know why. I just have to.
It's a rule. So I have to say "the fruit".
594.08 -> "The fruit was bad."
606.08 -> The third point when we use the article "the"
-- the article "the" -- I'm using articles
612.08 -> all the time -- is when the speaker and the
listener or the reader -- whatever, if you're
619.04 -> reading or listening -- know -- they both
know -- which noun you are talking about.
627.04 -> For example, if you and your friend go to the
same school, you have to say "the school".
636.04 -> If I was talking to my friend on the phone,
and I said, "Hey, yeah. Oh, I left my book
642 -> at the school." My friend and I both know
what school I am talking about. In my city,
650 -> there are 2.5 million schools. There's a lot
of schools in Toronto. There are 2.5 million
658 -> people. And a lot of people go to different
schools. But because my friend and I go to
663.96 -> the same school, I have to say "the school".
"I'm going to go to the school tomorrow."
673.96 -> You and I both know we're
talking about the same one.
678.96 -> The next one is we use with countries, but
only 1% of the countries of the world. So
686.92 -> I ask you, "What country are you from?" "I
am from Canada." We have listeners from all
694.92 -> over the world. I would guarantee that 99%
of you would not use an article with your
702.92 -> country name. "I come from Canada." Below
Canada, there's a country -- it's a big country
708.88 -> called -- anyone know? Below Canada? Geography
time. The United States of America or, shorter,
717.88 -> the USA. A lot of people, their ancestors
in Canada came from a country or group of
727.88 -> countries called the United Kingdom. The United
Kingdom. There's a country in the Middle East
734.84 -> called the United Arab Emirates. Is anyone
from there? I went there once in an airplane.
741.84 -> It's cool. The United States, the United Kingdom,
the United Arab Emirates. All of these three
750.84 -> countries, we have to use "the" because there is
the word "united" in the title of the country.
760.8 -> I do not say "the" Canada. I do not say "the"
Japan. If the word has "united" in it, I say
766.8 -> "the". The second one is if the country has
more than two words in the name, you're going
775.8 -> to say "the". For example, New Zealand. New
Zealand only has two words. I do not say "the"
781.8 -> New Zealand. If it has more than two words,
I have to put "the" in front of the country.
787.76 -> The last one is the most difficult. If you
are like me and did not do well in geography
792.76 -> class -- this one's hard -- we have to use
"the" if the country is comprised of tiny
801.76 -> or small islands. I do not expect everyone
in the world to know which countries are made
808.76 -> of small islands, but to help you out, off
the top of my head, the Philippines. If you
814.72 -> look on a map, the Philippines has many tiny
little islands that make one country. Another
820.72 -> example would be the West Indies, the Canary
Islands. These are all places that have small
828.72 -> islands that form one country. So if you look
at Japan, for example, Japan has maybe five
836.72 -> or more islands, but they're quite large,
so we cannot use this as "the" Japan. They
841.68 -> have to be very small islands. I hope you
understand this. If you have a question, please
849.64 -> leave me a comment. If you need
more help with this, please ask me. Bye.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJQoQLCeNo