ESL/Articles practice and pronunciation

Articles

• a, an, the
• articles indicate if something is general or "indefinite" (a/an) or specific or "definite" (the)

Indefinite article, a/ an

a, an

• a modifier that indicates a noun as something in general, a category
  • or that makes a non-specific reference to something

• i.e. "a tree" indicates that the "tree" is one of any trees, or refers to a tree in general
  • similar to
    • "any tree"
    • "some tree"
    • "one tree" (as in one of many but not any particular tree)
• indefinite articles always modify a singular noun
  • 🗴 a trees
  • 🗸 a tree

a versus an

• a precedes a consonant or a hard sound
  • a car
  • a house (hard "h")
  • a truck
  • may include the vowel "U" if the "U-sound" of the word is pronounced like a "Y"
    • a university
    • a unit
      • = a yoo-nit
      • the reason is that to make the "an" + "yoo" sound ("an unit") requires making two distinct sounds with the mouth and tongue
        • a yoo-nit
        • whereas it is easier to say the "a" + "yoo" sound as it can be spoken as a single sound, "ayoo" ----
• an precedes a vowel or a soft consonant sound for "H" or "U"
  • an hour (soft "h")
  • an umbrella

"An" with letters and abbreviations

Some of the consonants of the alphabet have soft sounds

• so when speaking the consonant itself, if the pronunciation of the letter is soft, an is used
  • You spell Michael with an M
  • The word "letter" begins with an L
  • Consonants that use an are
    • F, H, L, M, N, R, S, X.
  • all other consonants have a hard sound and so use a
    • She spells her name Liza with a Z instead of an S

• Abbreviations are spoken out by their letters (FAQ, MRI, RFQ, RSVP, etc.), thus
  • I need an MRI
  • They want an RSVP
• similarly, words that use a letter to describe something follow the same rule
  • We bought an L-shaped sofa
    • note that L-shaped is an adjective

Definite article, the

the

• a modifier that indicates a particular or specific thing
• i.e., "the tree" indicates a certain, or particular tree
  • similar to
    • "this tree"
    • "that tree"
• the precedes any letter sound
  • the dog
  • the hour

Articles and adjectives

Both articles and adjectives modify nouns

• they may both modify a noun together
• when they do, the article comes first
  • the big balloon
  • a huge cow
• the indefinite article, an matches to the adjective and not the noun
  • a person >> an awful person
  • an hour >> a long hour

Articles and non-count & abstract nouns and generalizations

non-count and abstract nouns are nouns (things) that cannot be counted

These noun forms do do not take articles:

• non-count nouns:
  • ex. water: you can count drops or bodies of water, but not water)
  • non-count nouns do not take indefinite articles;
  • they can take the definite article (the)
    • 🗴 We got stuck in a bad traffic
    • 🗸 We got stuck in bad traffic
    • 🗸 We got stuck in the bad traffic
    • they can also take adjectives and certain determiners (modifiers) such as
      • some water
      • any knowledge
• abstract nouns & generalizations
  • "abstract" means something that is not "concrete" or that you can touch
  • generalization is a form of abstraction, by turning a thing, like "a dog", and referring to it as a general category, "dogs" (generalization)
• proper nouns
  • names of people, places or things

Note that many nouns have both non-count/abstract forms as well as regular nouns

• and remember that plural nouns never use the indefinite article (a/an)

Noun	Noun with Articles	Non-Count or Abstract form without Articles	Notes
advice	--	That's good advice
knowledge	--	Knowledge is power.	non-count nouns
traffic	--	The tr
water	--	Water is necessary.
work	--	Work makes worthy.
dog	A dog is fun. The dog is fun.	Dogs are fun.	absract nouns or generalizations
chicken	We ate a chicken for dinner.	We ate chicken for dinner
nurse	The nurse works hard.	Nurses work hard.
Washington DC	--	Washington DC is close by	proper nouns (names)
George	--	George is my friend

Here for a full list of non-count nouns: List of 130 Mass Nouns (Or Noncount Nouns) in English