- •Unit 1 The Article General Notion
- •Practice
- •Unit 2 The Use of the Indefinite Article with Class Nouns
- •Practice
- •Unit 3 The Use of the Definite Article with Class Nouns
- •Note 1 The definite article is used with ‘wrong’ even when it does not make sense to talk about only one wrong possibility.
- •Practice
- •Unit 4 The Use of Articles with Class Nouns Modified by Attributes
- •Modification by nouns in the genitive case
- •Modification by prepositional phrases
- •Practice
- •Unit 5 The Use of Articles with Nouns in Apposition and with Predicative Nouns
- •Practice
- •Practice
- •Traditional Methods of Food Preservation
- •Unit 7 The Use of Articles with Abstract Nouns
- •The use of articles with uncountable abstract nouns
- •Practice
- •Unit 8 The Use of Articles with Names of Persons
- •1. No article is used:
- •2. The definite article is used:
- •3. The indefinite article is used:
- •4. The use of articles with nouns modified by proper nouns.
- •Practice
- •Unit 9 The Use of Articles with Geographic Names
- •1. Geographical names and place names with the definite article.
- •2. Geographical names and place names without article.
- •Practice
- •Geography of ____ United States
- •Unit 10 The Use of Articles with Miscellaneous Proper Names
- •Names of buildings and institutions
- •The following names typically have no article
- •Names of universities, colleges and schools: London University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Trinity College, Manchester Grammar School
- •Names of streets, roads, squares and parks
- •Names of ships, trains, and spacecraft
- •The names of smaller boats usually have no article:
- •Names of newspapers and periodicals
- •Names of sporting events
- •Names of festivals
- •Names of organizations
- •Names of political institutions
- •Practice
- •Getting around London
- •Unit 11 The Use of Articles with Some Semantic Groups of Nouns (1) Names of Seasons
- •Names of Months and Days of the Week
- •Names of Parts of the Day
- •2. The definite article is used:
- •Names of Longer and Specific Periods
- •Names of Meals The group includes the nouns: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and tea.
- •Practice
- •Unit 12 The Use of Articles with Some Semantic Groups of Nouns (2) Names of Diseases
- •Names of musical instruments
- •Media and communications
- •Names of means of transport
- •Forms of entertainment
- •Names of institutions in society
- •Parts of the body
- •Geographical oppositions
- •Names of shops and other businesses
- •Names of languages and religions
- •Names of grammatical categories
- •Practice
- •Newspaper papers phone post radio telephone television
- •The use of the definite article with nouns in set expressions.
- •Nouns in set expressions used without an article.
- •Practice
- •Unit 14 The Use of Articles with Nouns Modified by Certain Adjectives, Pronouns and Numerals
- •1. Most.
- •2. Few, a few, the few; little, a little, the little
- •3. Two, the two; the second, a second
- •4. Another, the other, other.
- •5. Last, the last; Next, the next.
- •6. A number, the number
- •Practice
Unit 1 The Article General Notion
The article is a structural part of speech used as a determiner with nouns. Since there are no articles in our native languages sometimes it is difficult to understand the rules of their usage. Why there is no article in Ukrainian or Russian? Because these languages are synthetic ones. We can easily determine any part of speech regarding their inflexions: рука, людина, вікно, лагідний, добре, працювати.
In English however, words of different parts of speech can be grammatically homonymous: a work – to work, a play – to play, so we need an article to determine the noun.
Moreover, in Ukrainian, there is no fixed word-order. It is possible to say: Вчора вчитель пояснював учням нову тему. або Вчитель пояснював нову тему учням вчора. In English it would be of fixed order. Yesterday the teacher explained the pupils a new topic.
While comparing these examples we can speak about something already known to the hearer (the theme) and something new (the rheme). The nouns which appear in the sentence as the theme are usually used with the definite article, and the nouns which are considered as the rheme are usually used with the indefinite article.
Peter has a cat. (Rheme)
The cat is black. (Theme)
As we see there are two articles in Modern English: the indefinite article and the definite article.
The indefinite article has the forms a and an.
The form a is used before words beginning with a consonant sound:
a book, a pen, a student.
Some words start with a vowel letter but begin with a consonant sound, so we use a before these words, too: a university (/ə ju:n.../), a European (/ə jυər… /), a one-parent family (/ə wΛn… /)
Abbreviations said as words are also used with the form a: a NATO general, a FIFA official
The form an is used before words beginning with a vowel sound: an opera, an apple. These include words that begin with a silent letter “h”: an hour, an honest child; and abbreviations said as individual letters that begin with A, E, F, H, I, L, M, N, O, R, S or X: an MP, an FBI, an IOU
The article is pronounced /ə/, /ən /; when stressed it is pronounced /eI/, /æn/.
The definite article has one graphic form the, which is pronounced in two ways: /ði/ before a vowel sound and /ðə/ before a consonant sound.
The indefinite article has developed from the Old English numeral an (one), and as a result of its origin it is used only with nouns in the singular. The definite article has developed from the Old English demonstrative pronoun and in some cases it has preserved this demonstrative meaning in Modern English. The use of the definite article shows that a particular object is meant.
These two articles are related to other determiners in the following way: the = this, that, the same; a (an) = some, any, such.
The absence of articles (sometimes called “zero” article) with class nouns in the plural, with abstract nouns and nouns of material has grammatical significance: it shows that the nouns are used in a general sense.