Introduction

The article is a word which syntactic function is to determine a noun. There are two main articles in English – the definite article “the” and the indefinite article having two forms “a”, “an”.

The indefinite article originates from the cardinal numeral “one” and is used only before singular countable nouns. The form “a” occurs before nouns beginning with a consonant sound (not letter) while the form “an” before nouns beginning with a vowel sound. It is usually not stressed and pronounced like [ə] and [ən]:

a cat [ə ˈkæt] a unit [ə ˈju:nɪt]

an apple [ən ˈæpl] an X-ray [ən ˈeksˈreɪ]

NOTE! When stressed the indefinite article is pronounced [eɪ] and [æn].

The definite article developed from a demonstrative pronoun and may be used before singular countable and uncountable nouns as well as before plural nouns. It also has two variants of pronunciation [ðə] before nouns beginning with a consonant sound and [ði:] before nouns beginning with a vowel sound:

the cat [ðə ˈkæt] the unit [ðə ˈju:nɪt]

the apple [ði ˈæpl] the X-ray [ði ˈeksˈreɪ]

The stressed form is [ði:], the unstressed is [ðə].

The choice of the right article depends on the kind of noun the article modifies. Here is the semantic classification of nouns that determines the structure of this book:

Exercises

1. Use the correct article “a” or “an” with the following nouns:

elephant university umbrella VIP honest woman half-hour meeting

one-hour lesson useful book SOS European hand underpass

CD exam school busy life answer MP person

2. Pronounce correctly [ðə] or [ði:]:

apple red apple year horse accident

hour situation European city engineer auto

honest answer yacht airplane opera hot evening

3. Classify the following nouns:

Model: An apple is a countable concrete noun.

Wine is an uncountable noun of material (name of substance).

difficulty	a celebrity	a horse
love	the police	California
the Catholics	the Riviera	the French
a sail	New York	sugar
betrayal	an experience	milk
a child	coal	Elle
water	Margaret	chocolate
an effort	a lion	snow
the elite	a thing	sand
the peasantry	a hare	literature
a flower	a computer	beauty
a discussion	experience	an opportunity