Grammar reference unit 2 The indefinite article ’a’/’An’ – One/Ones

’A’/’An’

1. With singular countable nouns when we talk about them in general:

I want to buy a dress. (any dress)

2. With the verbs to be and have (got):

Mary has (got) a dog. It’s a German Shepherd.

3. Before Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms when we refer to an unknown person:

A Mrs Jones called you this morning. (A person that we don’t know)

4. To show: a) price in relation to weight (two pounds a kilo), b) distance in relation to speed (80 km an hour), c) frequency (twice a week).

5. When we refer to one example of a class or a species:

An African elephant has larger ears than an Indian elephant.

6. When the topic (noun) is not known to our listener/reader:

A new travel guide has advised would-be tourists to Morecambe that it is a place to avoid.

7. When we talk about: a) jobs (I am a structural engineer), b) nationalities (Helmut is an Austrian), c) beliefs (Jack Stevens became a Christian), d) numbers (a hundred thousand).

A(n)/One

1. We use a/an to refer to an unspecified thing with the meaning ’any one’. We use one when we are counting, to put emphasis on number:

He bought a tie. (We are not talking about a specific tie.)

He bought one tie. (He didn’t buy two ties.)

2. We use one with the words day, week, month, year, winter, morning, night, etc. or with a specific day or month to say when something happened, usually in narration:

One summer, the family decided to go to Tahiti.

We can use one day to refer to the future:

One day, you will regret this.

3. We use one or one of … when we mean one person/thing out of many. It usually contrasts with another/other(s):

One bus was full, but the others were empty.

One of my colleagues is from Italy.

4. We use a/an or one with no difference in meaning when counting or measuring distance, weight, time, etc.:

I paid a/one hundred pounds for this bracelet.

One/Ones

1. We use one in the singular and ones in the plural to avoid repeating the noun when it is clear what we mean:

My house is the one with the red front door.

2. We use a/an with one when there is an adjective before one:

I want to buy a jacket. I want a leather one.

But: I want to buy a jacket. I want one with a fur collar.

3. We use one/ones with this/that:

I don’t like this pair of shoes, but I like that one.

4. We use which one(s) in questions:

I like the yellow blouse best. Which one do you like?

The definite article

We use the:

1. With nouns when we are talking about something specific, that is, when the noun is mentioned for a second time or is already known:

I bought a shirt and a dress. The dress is blue and the shirt is green.

2. With nouns which are unique:

the sun, the Eiffel Tower

3. With the names of cinemas (the Rex), hotels (the Carlton), theatres (the Globe), museums (the British Museum), newspapers/magazines ( the Times but: Time magazine), ships (the Mary Rose), organizations (the EU), galleries (the Tate Gallery).

4. With the names of rivers (the Nile), seas (the Caspian Sea), groups of islands (the Canary Islands), mountain ranges (the Alps), deserts (the Sahara Desert), oceans (the Atlantic), canals (the Panama Canal), countries when they include words such as state, Kingdom, republic, etc. (the United Kingdom), and names or nouns with ’of’ (the Leaning Tower of Pisa).

Note: the equator, the North/South Pole, the north of England, the south/west/north/east, the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Far East.

5. With the names of musical instruments and dances:

the piano, the tango

6. With the names of families (the Windsors), and nationalities ending in -sh, -ch or -ese (the French, the Scottish, the Japanese, etc.).

7. With titles (the King, the Prince of Wales, the President). But: the is omitted before titles with proper names (Queen Victoria).

8. With adjectives/adverbs in the superlative form:

He’s the most respected man in the firm. But: when ’most’ is followed by a noun, it does not take ’the’:

Most children like cartoons.

9. With the words morning, afternoon, evening and night:

We eat dinner in the evening. But: at night, at noon, at midnight, by day/night, at 4 o’clock, etc.

10.With historical periods/events: the Middle Ages, the Crimean War. But: World War II.

11. With the words first, last, next, only, same, right, wrong:

the last time, the only one.

12. In some comparative phrases: the more the merrier, all the better.

13. In measurements:

You can buy saffron by the gram.

14. When you talk about physical environments:

I prefer the town to the country.

15. With dates when spoken:

the tenth of May.

16. To refer to the whole class or species:

The rose is one of the few flowers that look better picked than growing.

17. When the context makes it ’known’:

’Has Edward arrived yet?’ ’Yes, he’s in the dining-room’. (=the dining-room of the house we are in)

18. When a defining phrase makes it ’known’:

Oasis is the Manchester band that shot to fame in the early 1990s.

19. When a prepositional phrase makes it ’known’:

Meet me in the cafe next to the underground station near my house.

20. With the noun sea in the general sense:

The sea was calm without the reef.

21. With names of mountain passes:

the Saint Gotthard Pass

22. With geographic names having the plural forms:

the Midlands, the Netherlands, the Yorkshire Forests.

23. With names of clubs (the National Tennis Club), concert halls ( the Carnegie Hall), monuments (the Washington Monument).

24. With names of parties and institutions:

the Conservative Party, the Democratic Party, the London City Council, the House of Commons, the British Parliament.

We do not use the:

1. With uncountable and plural countable nouns when talking about something in general:

Fish live in water.

2. With proper nouns:

Mark lives in Brighton.

3. With the names of sports, games, activities, days, months, celebrations, colours, drinks, meals and languages (when they are not followed by the word ’language’):

I often play chess. We speak German. But: The German language is difficult to learn.

4. With the names of countries: (Italy, but: the Lebanon, the Sudan, the Vatican City), cities (Paris, Florence, but: the Hague), streets (Oxford Street, but: the High Street, the Strand, the Mall, the London road, the A19 ,the M6 motorway), squares (Trafalgar Square), bridges (Tower Bridge, but: the Bridge of Sighs, the Humber Bridge), parks (Hyde Park), railway stations (Victoria Station), mountains (Ben Nevis, but: the Matternhorn), individual islands (Cyprus), lakes (Lake Geneva), continents (Africa), waterfalls (Niagara Falls), bays (Hudson Bay), peninsulas (Labrador), capes (Cape Horn), universities (Harvard University), colleges (Hertford College), buildings (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St.Paul’s Cathedral, but: the White House, the Tower, the Old Bailey).

5. With possessive adjectives or the possessive case:

This is my car.

6. With two-word names when the first word is the name of a person or place:

Gatwick Airport, Windsor Castle.

7. With names of pubs, restaurants, shops, banks and hotels named after the people who started them and end in –s or –’s:

Lloyds Bank, Harrods, Dave’s Pub, but the Red Lion (pub).

8. With the words bed, church college, court, hospital, prison, jail, school, university, class, table and sometimes market when we refer to the purpose for which they exist:

Sarah went to school. (She is a student.)

Her father went to the school to see her teacher yesterday. (He went to the school as a visitor.)

9. With the word work (=place of work):

Mr Sanders is at work.

10. With the words home, father, mother, aunt, uncle, nurse, cook, sister, brother,cousin, baby when we talk about our home/father/mother, etc.:

Mother is at home.

11. With by + means of transport:

She travelled by bus. But: She left on the 8 o’clock bus this morning.

12. With the names of illnesses:

He ’s got malaria. But: flu/the flu, measles/the measles, mumps/the mumps.

Note:

1. We use the with the words beach, station, cinema, theatre, coast, country(side), ground, jungle, seaside, weather, world, shop, library, city:

Let’s go to the beach.

2. We usually don’t use the with the word television:

I like watching television in the evenings. But: Turn on the television, please. (the television set)

3. The is optional with seasons:

My favourite season is (the) spring.

4. We use the + adjectives to refer to a group of people usually with the words: poor, rich, sick, injured, elderly, homeless, disabled, young, old, dead, blind, deaf, handicapped, mentally ill:

The young are usually impatient.