1. Articles

2. Nouns: singular, plural

3. There is /There are

1. ARTICLES

• There are only two types of articles in English: indefinite ‘a, an’ and definite ‘the.’

Indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ have the meaning ‘one’or ‘any’, they are used with singular countable nouns also they are used before nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned before:

• I saw an elephant this morning.

• I ate a banana for lunch.

• A and an are used when talking about one’s profession:

• I am an English teacher.

• He is a builder.

• Definite article – ‘the’ is used with singular and plural nouns, countable and uncontable ones to talk about something specific.

• The apple you ate was rotten.

• Did you lock the car?

• You should also use the when you have already mentioned the thing you are talking about.

• She's got two children; a girl and a boy.

• The girl's eight and the boy's fourteen.

• We use the to talk about geographical points on the globe.

the North Pole, the equator

• We use the to talk about rivers, oceans and seas

1. the Nile, the Pacific, the English channel

• We also use the before certain nouns when we know there is only one of a particular thing (it is unique).

2. the rain, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth, the White House etc.

However if you want to describe a particular instance of these you should use a/an.

3. I could hear the wind. / There's a cold wind blowing.

4. What are your plans for the future? / She has a promising future ahead of her.

The is also used to say that a particular person or thing being mentioned is the best, most famous, etc. In this use, 'the' is usually given strong pronunciation.

5. Harry's Bar is the place to go.

6. You don't mean you met the Tony Blair, do you?

Note:

The doesn't mean all:

• The books are expensive. = (Not all books are expensive, just the ones I'm talking about.)

• Books are expensive. = (All books are expensive.)

2. Nouns: singular, plural

singular + -s

singular	Plural
a car	two cars
a cassette	two cassettes

Add -es after sibilants:

singular	plural
a box	two boxes
a sandwich	two sandwiches
a suitcase	two suitcases
a rose	two roses
a garage	two garages

Substitute -y after consonant with -ies:

singular	plural
a city	two cities
a lady	two ladies

Add -s after vowel + y:

singular	plural
a boy	two boys
a day	two days

Nouns on -f or -fe:

add -s		substitute with -ves
singular	plural	singular	plural
a roof	two roofs	a thief	two thieves
a cliff	two cliffs	a wife	two wives
a sheriff	two sheriffs	a shelf	two shelves

Nouns on -o form the plural by adding -s or -es.

add -s		substitute with -ves
singular	plural	singular	plural
a disco	two discos	a tomato	two tomatoes
a piano	two pianos	a potato	two potatoes
a photo	two photos	a hero	two heroes

Some nouns can have two plural forms:

buffalo – buffalos / buffaloes mosquito – mosquitos / mosquitoes tornado – tornados / tornadoes