English Grammar: When NOT to use an article – 9 rules

hi everybody welcome to inkvid.com i'm adam in today's video i want to talk to you about the zero article now some of you might not be familiar with this word the zero article is basically the situations in which we don't use any article these are definite and indefinite articles zero article means no article so i'm gonna give you nine situations or nine rules where you should not use an article and like it is with english in many ways there are also exceptions so the rule is pretty general but there are specific exceptions or situations where their rule does not apply and i will point these out as well so we're going to start with a few very basic ones uh to be honest with you the only way to understand not understand to remember these is just to memorize them and practice them just know the rules and just keep remembering them whenever you're writing when i get to the last two or three rules it gets a little bit trickier but for the beginning it's just very straightforward just to remember okay so we're going to start with country names all country names do not take an article so canada or england or brazil or iran or china or vietnam etc no article but there are exceptions and i wrote this for short i'll just write it out if you want to make sure an exception is the one or two times where this the rule does not apply so any country that has the word republic federation or united in the name of the country takes the so for example korea there's two ways to refer to the to the country south korea one is just korea or south korea or the more technical formal name is the republic of korea russia or the russian federation so as soon as you see these words in the name of the country add the if the country is plural add the so the philippines the virgin islands the seychelles etc the bahamas as soon as there's an s as a plural add the and of course there's the vatican which is technically its own country it's special there's only one so we put the otherwise no article now that's country name now we're talking about the people who live in these countries so nationalities when we're making a general reference so if you go to the u.n like in that side of the building that's where the americans are sitting on the the russians sit on the other side they separate from each other so when you're talking about people and you're describing people then you use the otherwise in a general reference nationalities you don't use the no article but again there's an exception if the nationality is the same word as the language that they speak then you use the then you use the definite article right so the french speak french the french means the french people speak french the french language canadians however speak english so canadians in english two different words no article same word for nationality and language the nationality gets an article but that leads us to rule number three languages languages don't get an article no exceptions all languages english french russian persian arabic chinese japanese whatever no no article four sports so all sports don't get an article but and this is not really an exception but it can often be confused sporting events do get an article because there's only one of them there are definite events so the olympics the u.s open the wow whatever other events there are again some of them are not so wimbledon tennis match i'm not sure if there's an actual formal name for it or if it's just wimbledon tennis match but most uh sporting events get the because they're very specific and only one of them so these are very easy you just have to remember the rules and most importantly remember the exceptions that's where people get a little bit confused let's look at some more okay so now we have a few more rules and again these are the ones that you're just going to memorize and try to remember and keep in mind that most of these rules are especially important in writing of course they're important in speaking as well but if you make mistakes people will still generally understand what you're saying in writing it can make a big difference to the flow to the feel of their writing so try to remember these and apply them whenever you can so next number five we're looking at academic subjects now individual subjects don't take an article but when you group them into a category then the category will take an article it will take the so for example philosophy is uh just a subject it doesn't take an article but philosophy is part of the humanities the humanities like philosophy english all these things that go together the sciences the arts whenever you have a grouping add the individual subjects no article number six so now we have a few geographical or geographic features these you have to be they're a little bit hard to remember because you're not going to use these things you're not going to refer to geographic regions very often but you should still remember when to use an article and when not to and again it's just memorization so single mountains that are named don't take an article so for example mount fuji mount everest mount kilimanjaro because you have the mount the mount acts as the identifier as the definite modifier to the name so mount fuji but when you have mountain ranges when you have a group of mountains then and you name the group again it's the same as the subjects the categories then you add the so the rockies the swiss alps the himalayan range etc next we have lakes and bays a bay is like a lake except one end is open to uh the sea or the ocean a lake is within land surrounded by land so lakes and bays don't take an article so lake baikal in russia or the hudson bay in canada no article again if you're going to put a group like in north america like between canada and the u.s there are the great lakes there are five lakes lake ontario lake erie like huron etc the great lakes as the group individuals not but seas oceans gulfs and rivers the the mississippi the mediterranean sea the pacific ocean the gulf of mexico okay uh the mississippi river the nile river et cetera other features like canyons valleys or fjords all these things because they are only because there's only one of them if it's named then you add the because you're specifying one only but again it's not that often you're going to be talking about the grand canyon so you'll should be able to remember next number seven proper names and this is where it gets it starts to get a little a little bit confusing seven and then eight and nine are a little bit more confusing so i'll slow it down when you're talking about person so an individual person who's you who you whom you're referring to by name does not take an article you don't say the bob the wendy you just say their names right companies you don't say the apple you just say apple corp or ibm or amazon or whatever company you're talking about schools now schools generally do not take an article but we have an exception here schools that have of in their name take the so for example harvard university nova the university of toronto with the so any school name that has of the college of medicine right anything that has an of in it or even if it's a small one the london school of economics then you're going to add the no of no the again just remember that there's no i can't really tell you why that is it's a little strange and then another exception museums oh sorry so we also had organizations proper names but museums galleries churches or basically anything that's like a little bit touristy and there's only one of then you add the so the metropolitan museum uh the uffizi gallery the suck recur right so these are very specific places there's only one of them and that's why we're adding the to make them individuals so again memorize practice look for in your reading and writing let's look at number eight and nine and they'll be a little bit trickier okay so we have two more rules to get through and these ones can be a little bit tricky sometimes and i'll show you why so when we have other modifiers sometimes these modifiers act as the the pointer right so what is what does the do the signifies that something is a definite noun right other modifiers can do the same job especially these three they're not the only ones but these are the most common ones that you can use instead of the article so possessive pronouns my your his her there etc so these when i say my book the my makes it definitely it's mine it's not yours it's not his it's not someone else's right so that word my makes the book definite so i don't need the to make it definite right that's why you don't mix the two together and this is a bit of a problem that some people have they will mix the two so for example someone returned the my book that i lost last week so obviously you should recognize that i can say someone returned the book that i lost last week because i'm identifying the book so it's a definite book or someone returned my book that i lost last week okay now technically when i have my book the my identifies the book so this becomes non-identifying and i would switch it to which if i want to give that extra information right because otherwise you have two things identifying the book and it's unnecessary if you use the keep that if you use my switch to which that's a little bit tricky that's why people get confused because they're not sure what is doing the function of identifying what is doing the function of making something definite so you have to be a little bit careful about that same with demonstrative pronouns this that these those it they etc so pass me that the cup so pass me that cup or pass me the cup as long as the person listening understands which copy you're referring to when you say the so in this case again i don't need the no article i don't need the no article but make sure that the other modifier you're using identifies or makes the noun definite and again quantifiers or other modifiers there are a few other modifiers the key is not which modifier you're using the key is the function of the modifier to identify to make something definite so that's the another rule this one is not so much about memorization this one is about recognizing the situation of the sentence so you have to be a little bit more careful the other uh the other rules i gave you were just remember them this one understand it a little different and the same with number nine when you make a general reference to uncountable and abstract nouns you're not going to use an article so some examples people need to drink water regularly water is an uncountable noun so you can't make it definite but the water in the glass is warm so here i'm talking about a specific quantity of water so it's i can make it definite because i am also the water that is in the glass i'm identifying this particular quantity not water in general so in general uncountable noda specific quantified the oh that's a little bit clear now when you have abstract nouns abstract nouns are basically an idea you can't actually hold on to it you can't touch it you can't see it etc love is beautiful love is generally an idea a feeling so there's no the but a mother's love is beautiful ah indefinite because we're not talking we're not sure which mother but we're talking about a specific type of love but again different mothers different loves that's the idea the love a mother gives her child cannot be matched by anything else so that specific love that a mother gives to a child any mother any child then it's a bit more definite then i would use the but general reference abstract no the hope is a little bit clear now somebody asked very specifically about certain nouns that they they think are specific but in fact are kind of abstract so for example take office or run for office the word office is not a room with a desk and a computer office is a position it's a political position it's a it's an abstract position you can't actually see it or touch it or do anything with it an office like a physical office has walls a door a ceiling and a floor it's a real thing run for office or take office in terms of politics just an abstract idea okay and president now he ran for president president here is not per is not a person president here again is an abstract idea he ran for the presidency of the country right so he ran for president just a bit shorter this is a position this is an idea who what what is it what is a president actually it's just a person who everybody agrees is the president once he's elected so the idea of the presidency and then once the person has their title then notice it's a capital p then this is an official job title and then it's something specific that you can actually put the for something more definite so the question is not like it's not a trick trying to say when to take the article out or when to add the article the key is to understand the function of the word president office these are actually abstract ideas and when we're referring to them in general then we're not going to use an article when we're referring to something more specific concrete definite we're going to add the article the definite article the okay so that's it nine rules i know it's a lot of information but again remember some of it memorize these two in particular make sure you actually understand what is going on and be able to recognize when another modifier is working for you instead of the article and when you have abstract and uncountable nouns once you understand that it's much easier to recognize what's going on in your reading hopefully much easier to apply this to your writing to make sure you don't lose style points i guess in grammar points if you're taking a ielts or toefl etc so if you have any questions about any of this please go to ingvid.com and ask in the comment section i'll do my best to help you understand this a little bit more clearly there's also a quiz that you should take to try to practice your understanding of when not to use an article especially definite article and that's it i hope you liked the video if you did give me a like don't forget to subscribe to my channel and ring the bell for notifications of future videos and come back for more grammar tips vocab other stuff etc see you again soon bye

Channel: Adam’s English Lessons · engVid

Views: 271,966

Keywords: article, indefinite, definite, countable, grammar, English grammar, English, ESL, Learn English, native speaker, vocabulary, English lesson, English classes, IELTS, TOEFL, native English, conversation skills, speaking, slang, English pronunciation, pronunciation, comprehension, engvid, accent, Education, Học tiếng Anh, anglais, inglese, inglés, Englisch, англи́йский, inglês, angielski, anglicky, αγγλικά, İngilizce, إنجليزي, Subject (grammar)

Id: azrYbrC-xXg

Length: 18min 38sec (1118 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2021