Articles (a, an, the) - Lesson 1 - 7 Rules For Using Articles Correctly - English Grammar

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Transcript:
Hello and welcome. In this
lesson, I will teach you the
seven rules that you need to
know for using articles in
English correctly. Articles are
the words ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’.
There is a final quiz at the
end of the lesson for you to
test your understanding.
OK, the first rule is about
where to use ‘a’ and where to
use ‘an’. So rule number one is
use ‘a’ before a consonant
sound, and ‘an’ before a vowel
sound.
So in all of these words – you
see that they start with a
consonant sound. Cat starts
with /k/, dog
starts with /d/, boy with /b/,
girl with /g/, house with /h/
and tree with /t/.
So we say ‘a cat’, ‘a dog’, ‘a
boy’, ‘a girl’, ‘a house’, ‘a
tree’ etc. Notice that in
natural speech, we don’t say
‘a’, we say ‘uh’ – like ‘a
cat’.
In this next set of words, you
see that, they all start with a
vowel sound – apple starts with
/ae/, engineer starts with /e/,
ice-cream with /ai/, old with
/o/, umbrella with /uh/.
So we say ‘an apple’, ‘an
engineer’, ‘an ice-cream cone’,
‘an old womman’, ‘an umbrella’
and so on. In speech, we don’t
say ‘an’, we say /ən/.
Let’s do a small exercise. You
see ten items on the screen.
For each one, I want you to say
if you would use ‘a’ or ‘an’
before it. Stop the video,
think about it, then play the
video again and check.
OK here are the answers. Did
you get them all right? I want
to focus on items number seven
to ten because these are a
little tricky. Number seven is
‘a university’ because even
though ‘university’ starts with
the letter ‘u’ the first sound
of the word is not a vowel
sound. We don’t say
/ooniversity/. We say /yoo-nə-
vər-si-ty/ so that first sound
is a /y/ sound, which a
consonant sound, so we say ‘a
university.’
Number eight is similar. The
word ‘European’ starts with a
/y/ sound, so ‘a European
tour.’
In number nine, the spelling
has an ‘h’ at the start but
that ‘h’ is silent. We don’t
say /hau-ər/, we say /au-ər/.
The first sound is an /au/
sound which is a vowel sound,
so this is ‘an hour’. In the
same way, in number ten, we say
MA. ‘M’ starts with an /e/
sound which is again a vowel
sound, so ‘an MA in English’.
OK let’s move on to rule number
two: Use ‘a’ and ‘an’ ONLY with
singular, countable nouns.
We say that a noun is countable
if we can count it – one, two,
three, four etc.
All of these words on the
screen are countable. We can
say one elephant, three cars,
ten teachers, five hundred
onions and so on. Now if you
talk about one person or thing,
like one elephant or one
car, then that’s called a
singular noun and if you say
ten teachers or five hundred
onions, those are called plural
nouns.
Uncountable nouns cannot be
counted in this way. Nouns like
water, sugar, milk, love,
anger, knowledge are some
examples. If you think about
it, you cannot say “I drank
four waters” or “I want eight
milks”. To a person, you can
say “I love you” but you can’t
say “I have five loves for you”
– that doesn’t make any sense.
So these are all uncountable.
Alright, so the rule is - you
can only use ‘a’ and ‘an’ if
you’re talking about one person
or one thing.
Let’s do another quick
exercise. Here are ten items
again. This time, you see ‘a’
or ‘an’ before the nouns, but
some of these are wrong. They
should NOT have ‘a’ or ‘an’
before them. Stop the video,
identify the mistakes, then
play the video again and check.
OK, here are the answers.
Number three is wrong because
‘shirts’ is a plural and you
cannot use ‘a’ or ‘an’ before a
plural noun. Number five is
wrong because ‘happiness’ is
uncountable, so again, ‘a’ or
‘an’ cannot be used there. The
same goes for number six –
water is uncountable. Number
nine is wrong because ‘doctors’
is a plural – you can say ‘a
doctor’ but not ‘a doctors’.
And finally, in number ten,
advice is an uncountable noun –
so you cannot ask for ‘an
advice’.
Now a quick note here: the
article ‘the’ can be used with
all kinds of nouns – singular
or plural countable nouns, and
uncountable nouns.
OK, so let’s now talk about how
to choose between ‘a’ or ‘an’
and ‘the’.
Here’s rule number three: Use
‘a’ or ‘an’ to talk about a
person or thing unknown to your
listener. And use ‘the’ to talk
about a person or thing known
to your listener.
For example, “My sister has two
computers: a PC and a laptop.
The PC is quite old but the
laptop is brand new.” I say ‘a
PC’ and ‘a laptop’ because
that’s the first time I’m
mentioning the two computers.
That is, until this point, they
are unknown to you, the
listener.

[LearnEnglishLab]

Hey there, I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Let me know if you have any questions. Also check out:

[alexcameron]

What a brilliant explanation. I teach English and I am asked how and why articles are used all the time. This is the best explanation I have ever seen.

[pramodmishra]

Educating people without any charge/fees .this is what makes you great ...keep it up !.

[mohammadsaquib]

I am 28 year old but first time I found someone who explained these articles brilliantly. Thank you Sir

[malleshaholeyache]

No teachers of any premium schools or organisations don't teach like you sir . You are favourite of many learners. Thank you so much for all your videos sir. Keep teaching us english 😍🤗❤️

[GopalsutharRj]

He is the definition of a good teacher ❣️

[andx]

Articles (a, an, the)
0:18 Rule #1 (i) Use a before consonant sounds
(ii) Use an before vowel sounds
2:45 Rule #2 Use a or an only with countable nouns
5:08 Rule #3 (i) Use a or an to talk about a person or thing inknown to your listener
(ii) Use the to talk about a person or thing known to your listener
8:29 Rule #4 Use a or an to talk about nonspecific things or people
10:12 Rule #5 Use a or an to mention the category or type of a person or thing
12:18 Rule #6 Generalize with plurals or uncountable nouns with no article
14:50 Rule #7 Use no articles in this situations
(i) proper nouns - names of peoples, pleaces
(ii) names of games, languages
(iii) fixed expressions

[phlorenzmercado]

The best teacher ever! I actually have a hard time learning English and I have searched many channels until I found this. It literally changed my way of speaking using the English language.

[fearless-bnis]

How can anyone dislike this video? He's the best teacher.

[pehumehta]

Just wanna say that your teaching way is so different from others...that makes your class special.... Thank you for this special class.😊

[maliksaqib]

I would must say that you completely eradicate my misconception about the articles. Thanku so much Sir your tutorial is just awesome.. May Allah bless you with more and more. Love from Pakistan

[sonykirru]

Highly recommended for who searched for the articles class...tnq so much sir!! I literally learnt so much!!

[isabelmcconnon]

You're the best English teacher I've ever known. Sometimes we think that we know all but in fact, it's far from it.

[atulsaboo]

I can't find this type of video from last 3-4 days for my exam but finally i got the guy who can clear by doubts in just 30 mins .
Thankyou😊👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏

[aldukker]

I am a native speaker and have no issues in my day to day life with articles and yet this video was educational because it explained, why and where I use these articles, really interesting

[cofncmh]

My English has improved tremendously because of you. I used to make a lot of mistakes, more especially with grammar, but I've managed to nip in the bud a lot of those mistakes by watching your videos.

[manjunathamedical]

English grammar lessons by Ganesh sir seem to be a boon in this covid situation.thank you very much sir.by seeing your lessons we felt that English is indeed a easy subject

[Manoj-vy]

You are a great inspiration as a teacher sir. My grammar has improved a lot.could you please include having +pastparticiple

[maryl]

Great lesson. I have taught beginning ESL for years and find myself now teaching advanced ESL writing students. I did not know how to explain some of this but I am getting advanced students that are confused about this. Thanks so much for the lesson and for including the exercises. I know my students will be excited in class tomorrow!

[matsatsimokwena]

I really enjoyed this lesson. Thank you very much for making me understand how to use articles, I was always getting confused.