Jihye Park IEP 097 Ariel Goldberg

 A noun which is not specific  When either you or your listener do not have a particular person, place, or thing in mind.  Use the indefinite article a/an with singular count nouns that are not mentioned before.

 Use ‘a’ with nouns starting with a consonant(letters that are not vowels)  Use ‘an’ with nouns starting with a vowel(a,e,i,o,u)  Use when we mention someone or something for the first time in our conversation or text.

* The following word starts with a consonant  A boy  A house * The following word starts with a vowel  An apple  An orange

The following in the conversation or text  I’ve finally got a good job.  Would you like a drink?  We bought a new computer and it was cheap.  A: Let’s buy a video game.  B: Good Idea.

 If the next word begins with a consonant sound, we say it then we use a.  If the next word begins with a vowel sound, we say it then we use an. ☞ For example:  “University” with a “y” sound at the beginning as a though it were spelt “youniversity” → A university  “honest” with a silent “h” as though it were spelt “onest” → An honest woman

 -before phrases of time and measurements ☞ ex) a week, a year, an hour  -before phrases of jobs ☞ ex) My father is a car mechanic.  -with a noun complement ☞ ex) He is a good boy.  -before phrases of nationality ☞ ex) She is a Korean.

 A noun which is specific  When you and your listener both know which person, place, or thing you mean.  Use “the” with most nouns, count and non-count, singular and plural.

 A: I bought the video games yesterday.  B: Great! You’ve been talking about it for a long time. Is it fun? ☞ (B knows which video games A means. They’ve spoken about it before.)  He’s gone to the shops. ☞ (He knows which shops I mean)

 Use “The” when a person, place, or thing is unique-there’s only one. ☞ Ex) There’s a hole in the ozone layer. The moon is about 250,000 miles from the Earth.  Use “The” before superlatives and ordinal numbers. ☞ Ex) The highest building, the first page, the last chapter  Use where we define a particular person or object. ☞ Ex) The man who wrote this book is famous. My house is the one with a blue door.

 Fuchs, Marjorie, Miriam Westheimer, and Margaret Bonner. "Article: Definite and Indefinite." Focus on Grammar. Reading, MA: Addiosn-Wesley, Print.  english/grammar/definite-article.asp  mar/artikel2.htm