Indefinite article in English - "a" and "an"

hello everyone this is Andrew at Crown Academy of English today we are doing a grammar lesson and the subject is indefinite article so let's start so our an and there are all articles and specifically R and an are indefinite articles indefinite means not specific okay therefore usually we use art and Anne to talk about non specific nouns and the is the definite article so this is the opposite therefore usually we use the to talk about specific nouns and very important articles so all articles they only modify nouns they do not modify other words so they do not modify adjectives or adverbs okay example I have a car so there now on is car and here is the article so the article is modifying the noun now here we have added an adjective nice but that doesn't change anything the article is still modifying the noun I have a nice but this is wrong okay because here there is only an adjective there is not a noun so an article cannot modify an so this is wrong now let's look at an example I found a dog yesterday so here this is the first time that I mention a dog okay and so for the reader or the listener the person listening it is not a specific dog because we do not know the dog yet this is the first time that I mention it therefore we use the indefinite article a dog but if we now continue the story let's continue the story I'm going to give the dog to Jane now I have already mentioned the dog in the previous sentence therefore now it is a specific dog for the reader or the listener you already know the dog you know it exists so we use the definite article the and in this lesson you will learn the main uses of the indefinite article so you're going to learn everything about the art of the indefinite article our and unn so first of all which one do we use do we say our or unn well the rule is we use our before a consonant sound a consonant sound example a dog dog starts with a consonant sound a boat and a cat so cat starts also with a consonant sound ker but very important it is the consonant sound which is important it is the sound not the spelling so I'm going to give you an example of an exception for example this word okay it begins with a vowel letter but in fact it is a consonant sound so the letter U is a vowel letter but let's look at the pronunciation we pronounce it University your University it is a consonant sound so we use as the indefinite article we say our University we treat it as a consonant and we use an before a vowel sound example an Apple start with a vowel sound ah an orange vowel sound and finally an umbrella umbrella and again we have the same rule it is the sound which is important it is the vowel sound not the spelling for example this word it begins with a consonant letter but in fact it is a vowel sound so the consonant letter is the letter H but the pronunciation is our our the H is silent we do not hear it therefore we use an before the word an hour so here is a summary of the rules are before a consonant sound and an before a vowel sound let's look at this rule in a little bit more detail yesterday mark watched film so what do we put here well let's look at the pronunciation of film film it is a consonant sound therefore we say our film okay a film this is correct however yesterday mark watched excellent film okay so we have the same noun the noun is still film but we have added an adjective before the noun excellent so what do we do now well the rule is we look at the word after the article so we don't look at the pronunciation of film we look at the pronunciation of excellent and excellent start with a vowel sound therefore we say an mark watched an excellent film example 2 I am eating so what is the pronunciation of Apple here it is the vowel sound so we say an apple this is correct but let's add an adjective green apple so the word after the article this time it starts with a consonant sound green green so it's a consonant sound so we say a green apple a green apple so conclude excuse me conclusion the choice of our or unn depends on the sound of the beginning of the word directly after the indefinite article so it is always the word after the article and that determines whether we say R or n okay the grammatical use of R or unn we only use R or one before a singular countable noun I bought a shirt that is correct because shirt is a countable noun and here it is in the singular form Jane is eating an orange so that is fine however we do not use our or unn before a plural countable noun I bought a shirt that is wrong because shirts is a countable noun in the plural so instead we use some I bought some shirts also we do not use our or n before an uncountable noun example mark is eating a soup that is wrong soup is uncountable and we also use the word some mark is eating some soup ok so that is very important only with a singular countable noun uses first use is the most common one and it is to refer to a nonspecific thing or person and it is usually because it is perhaps the first time that we mention it and or perhaps it is not even important which specific thing or person we are talking about it is perhaps not important to the story so we do not need to specify example I bought a shirt today so which specific shirt is not really important nobody is really interested in which specific shirts and also it is the first time we mention it so we say a shirt but if we now continue to discuss the shirt then we use the because it is now specific we already know the shirt exists the shirt was expensive but I really like it so it's the same now but we change the indefinite article he is eating an apple it isn't very important to specify which Apple he is eating we just want to know what he is eating now here is a question can you lend me a pencil please or can you give me a pencil please and here we are not asking for a specific pencil it is not important for us which pencil you give us we just want a pencil we need to write something okay another use is to talk about any one member of a large group example David is a director of Microsoft David is a director of Microsoft so what does this mean well it means that Microsoft the company has several directors and Mark is one of those directors okay so it is one member of a large group a director mark is a student at Cambridge University again this means there are several students at Cambridge University and mark is one of those students a student to describe people's jobs so here is my job so Andrew is a teacher okay so we use the indefinite article to describe jobs and if we want to say that I am an English teacher then we say an English teacher because English begins with a vowel sound Jane is an sorry Jane is an accountant it's difficult to say that Jane is an accountant I want to be a soldier so every time we refer to people's jobs we always use the indefinite article number four certain phrases of frequency I travel to London four times a week four times a week this means that during I regularly go to London and during a week I go four times so we used the indefinite article and we put it before before the time period he brushes his teeth three times a day three times a day indefinite article and use five exclamations so an exclamation is when we are showing some surprise or there is some emotion there an example what a beautiful dog what a beautiful dog so we use the indefinite article after the word what and before the noun what a surprise what a surprise the indefinite article but very important we only do this with singular countable nouns so surprise is a countable noun and here it is in the singular dog is a countable noun and here it is in the singular if the noun is uncountable then there is no article there is no article at all example mark won the lottery what look what look so look in English is an uncountable noun so we say what look and there is no article okay exercise 1 complete the sentence with the correct word either R or an example and I am NOT going to say the sentences because that will be too easy for you so you have to say them so here the answer is an elephant because elephants begins with a vowel sound question 1 and the answer is yesterday I saw a baby elephant because baby begins with a consonant sound question 2 the answer is tonight I'm going to watch a European film this is one of those difficult situations where the word begins with a vowel but in fact when we pronounce it the sound is a consonant sound European European so we say R and not n question 3 the answer is mark would like to buy a car consonant excuse me consonant sound in question for the answer is mark would like to buy an expensive car and this time before the word car we have an objective and the adjective has a vowel sound at the beginning so we say n question 5 the answer is I'm sorry it was an honest mistake so again this is one of those exceptions and although it starts with a consonant sound the pronunciation is in fact a vowel sound honest honest the H is silent so we say an honest mistake okay exercise 2 which of these sentences is correct question 1 so there are four sentences and only one sentence is correct and the answer is the last one David would like to be a singer so it's a person's job so we use the indefinite article and singer begins with a consonant sound so we say a singer question two the answer is the first one what a stupid idea what a stupid idea so it is an exclamation an exclamation so we use the indefinite article and the word stupid begins with a consonant sound so it's a stupid idea and also idea is a countable noun in the singular question 3 the answer is the correct answer is I drink two glasses of water an hour an hour so our begins with a consonant letter but the sound is a vowel sound our okay so here we are using the indefinite article to describe the frequency of something the last question question four the answer is what terrible advice what terrible advice so here it is an exclamation but we do not use an article because the word advice is uncountable in English it is uncountable in English okay so that is very important that is why we do not have an article here okay so that is the end of the lesson I hope you enjoyed it here are some other videos which you might be interested in particularly this one if you are not very clear about the difference between countable and uncountable nouns then I advise you to watch this video and there are also some other videos after this one which explain countable and uncountable nouns okay this is my Twitter account and here is my website my name is Andrew at Crown Academy of English thank you for watching and I will see you very soon bye bye you

Channel: Crown Academy of English

Views: 232,332

Keywords: Indefinite article in English, English Articles, a and an, article indéfini en anglais, determiners in English, cours d'anglais, english grammar lesson, english grammar exercises, english grammar, English lessons, Crown Academy of English, English language

Id: HwLujpVeUBU

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 13 2015