A. An.The. Or, nothing? When do we use
these articles? I'm Arnel from Arnel's Everyday English and today we're looking
at these. First, we use a with a consonant sound.
And we use an with a vowel sound. Vowel? Consonant? Vowels are: a e i o u and
consonants are all the other letters. I need to tell you,
normally in spoken English we pronounce a, uh. So listen out for that. I have an
Apple, vowel sound ah, an. I have an orange. I have an umbrella. I have an
orangutan... I have a dog, the consonant sound. I have a shoe. I have a cup of
coffee. A + consonant sounds, a + vowel sound. But, let's look at a few
exceptions: I go to a university. He is a unique person. I need an x-ray. So why do
I have a with u? U is a vowel. It's because of the sound.
University is pronounced y we have the Y consonant sound. Again he is a y y
unique person, so of course we have u the vowel but, we need a consonant sound. An
x-ray? X is a consonant, e= x-ray. Let's look at a and an. First we use a or an with a
singular countable noun when we speak about something in
general. I need a pen. do you have a pen? Do I need a specific pen? I don't care,
any pen is fine. What did you do last night? I watched a movie. Which movie? It
doesn't matter, I'm not being specific, a an in general. We also use these when we
introduce something for the first time yesterday I saw a seagull eating a
hamburger in the middle of the street. So, it's the first time I'm telling you, a or
an. When speaking about someone's job, I'm a teacher you're an engineer. Next rule,
when we want to say one with big numbers. I need a hundred roses, I need 100 roses.
I've eaten a thousand mangoes in my life. A thousand ,one thousand. How many times? I
go to the gym twice a week. I have a coffee three times a day.
Did you know hummingbirds can flap their wings 70 times a second? Okay so we
looked at the rules for a and an, let's continue with: the. Remember early in the
video I said I need a pen, do you have a pen? I need a pen, do you have a pen? See, I
did say it! You already know we use a or an for something in general.
The is specific. Yes, I bought the sofa. Here both the speaker and the listener
know exactly which sofa I'm speaking about, it's clear when we use the we use:
the. We use the when we mention something for the second time. I saw a seagull eating a
hamburger in the middle of the street. Can you believe it, the seagull
finished the hamburger in about two minutes. Now I'm repeating my subjects, I
use the. With superlatives, coffee is the best drink in the world. You are the
smartest person I know. I think cheetahs are the fastest animal
in the world. With groups of society. The rich, the poor, the homeless, the youth.
Robin Hood steals from the rich and gives to the poor. When there's only one
of something. The Sun, the moon. the government, the Queen. With mountain ranges, oceans,
seas, rivers, the Alps, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Thames, the Orkney
Islands, lie in the Atlantic. With plural countries. What do I mean by plural
countries? We say: the United Kingdom because there's many parts together. We
say the United States, the Netherlands. We have that s, there's a plural there. The
Philippines, the with plural countries. With instruments. I can play the piano. My
brother can play the guitar very well. With morning,
afternoon and evening. See you in the morning. I usually work in the afternoons.
The evenings are our busiest time. But, we say at night, not at the the night. We've
already looked at so many different rules I hope you're feeling okay!
Now, I need to tell you there's always exceptions, you know this. If you remember
rule number five, there's only one of something, we use the. But there are
always exceptions. So we say Buckingham Palace but we say the Taj Mahal, the
Eiffel Tower. So you have the grammatical rules and just be prepared to become
familiar with different exceptions. No an, no a, no the. We're speaking about
zero article, we also need to know this. So a quick review: I want a dog. A with
countable nouns, general. It doesn't matter. I want a dog. I want the dog from
that movie Benji. The specific dog. I love dogs. When we use a plural countable noun
or an uncountable noun, we don't use an article when we speak about it in
general. I love dogs, they're my favorite animal. Do I want to be specific? I love
the dogs from that TV show. Streets, towns, cities, countries and specific mountains.
I live in New York City on Fulham Road. The New York City? The Fulham Road? No. I
want to climb Mount Everest one day. Not the Mount Everest.
Fantastic, you've done an excellent job, there are a lot of rules to remember!
So, what I want you to do is write me an example sentence using: a, and, the and no
article. can you do it? Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to me so you never miss
another video and I'll see you very soon!
