English grammar - Definite article and zero article - gramática inglesa

Hello and welcome to today's English lesson. My name is Stuart. In today's lesson we're looking at using articles in English let's go to the intro now today's lesson is about using articles and specifically the definite article the or the in English and for a lot of language backgrounds the use of articles is difficult to understand in English because sometimes we use them sometimes we don't perhaps in your language if you speak Spanish or Portuguese perhaps your language uses the definite article more than we do in English so sometimes it's confusing when you speak or when you write to understand when we need to use the definite article and when we don't need to use the definite article the or thee but more or less in these example sentences there's a there's a a rule or a trick as as to when to use it and when not to use it so for example I go to bed at around 11:00 p.m. or please put the box under the bed now why do we have an article here and why don't we have an article here if the noun is exactly the same well the reason is that when we talk about the words bed or prison or hospital or school or church or court or university we sometimes need to use an article and sometimes we don't need to use an article but it all depends on the purpose so let's have a look I go to bed at around 11:00 p.m. now I go to bed for a purpose the main purpose of me going to bed is to sleep that is the purpose of the bed now you can use beds for other things I know but I'm not going to go down that path in this video here we'll keep it clean we'll talk about sleeping so the purpose of me going to bed is to sleep that is what the bed is for okay I don't need to put the article here but here please put the box under the bed the purpose of the bed is not for sleeping it's to put the box under it okay it's to put the box under so it's another reason okay it's used for other reasons the bed for here it's for putting the box underneath it so put the box under the bed I go to bed at 11 p.m. but put the box under the bed the purpose and the other reason second example he was sent to prison at a young age no article he visited the prison to drop off a package why here again people go to prison for a reason okay people go to prison because they committed a crime that is the purpose of the prison so if you go to the prison for that purpose because you are a criminal or you committed a crime we don't need to put an article here but in this sentence I went to the prison for a different reason not because I was a criminal but because I had to drop off a package so it's another reason for me going to the prison okay so let's see hope that is clear in those two examples the third example with hospital the same rule my fever got worse so I went to the hospital what is the purpose of a hospital the purpose of a hospital is to make you better so if you go to hospital in order to get better than we don't need to put the article but here the reason I went to the hospital was to visit my mother so we have an article the other reason for going to the hospital now I'll just stop here and say that in American English you can see an article here it's not incorrect they just use the language differently in that sense but in British English normally we don't use the article here again school same idea my son goes to school what is the purpose of the school the purpose of the school is to educate to study so he goes to school every day but I went to this school to pick him up because my purpose was not to study my purpose was to pick him up and take him home okay so my son goes to school I went to the school or to the school to pick up to pick him up okay there's the other reason for going the last example some people go to church on Sundays what is the purpose of a church the purpose of the church is to practice your religion or to pray so if you go to church for that reason for the reason of the church being there we don't need to have the article but if you go to a church for another reason and in this sentence it's because I wanted to take photos of the Magnificent architecture of the church we have the article it's as simple as that so no article here for the purpose of the church why I went there was to pray ah and here to take photos okay so it was not the reason the church is there the church is not there for people to take photos people do take photos of the church the church is there as a place of worship or where where people can pray or people can practice their religion so no article article so all of the sentences have the same characteristic purpose other reason article no article okay it's as simple as that now thank you very much for watching the lesson if you have any questions or comments please leave them in the section below remember to share the video please on social media Facebook Google+ Twitter Pinterest share it up on social media I'll see you in the next lesson have a good day bye

Channel: Your English Web: Weekly English video lessons

Views: 44,227

Keywords: english lesson, definite article, zero article, articles grammar, grammar rules, inglese, inglés, Englisch, англи́йский, angielski, engleză, anglicky, αγγλικά, İngilizce, إنجليزي, Inggris, Angol, inglês, Free English, English lesson, English video, Grammar, learn grammar, English speaking, spoken English, learn English, speak English, speaking English, fluent English, fluency in English, English training video, speak fluent English, yt:cc=on

Id: l--9djUfsQc

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2016