Lesson 25 - Articles (a, an, the) - Learn English with Jennifer

Lesson 25 - Articles (a, an, the)

These are REAL lessons. No actors. No scripts. A real learning experience.

Do you know a friend or family member who needs to learn English? Tell them they can learn along with Natasha as I teach her the basics of the English language.

I will not be posting captions (subtitles) on these early lessons. I want beginners to develop their listening skills. Happy Studies to all!

TEACHERS: Please visit my blog for related ideas.

Music credit:
"Smart, Easy Listening"
Artist: Enrique Plazaola

[Englishwithjennifer]

Dear Viewers!

Please consider visiting my website today! I have opened a community forum. Sign in and start asking your language questions. It will be much easier for me to answer all questions and have discussions on the forum. See you there!

[Englishwithjennifer]

Can you identify your strengths and weaknesses? For example, if you feel confident about reading and writing, you can focus more now on speaking and listening. Please consider my Study Tips on my website, and then look through the useful Links & Resources. You can select a few resources to match your needs. My community forum is open and you can post more questions there. Kind regards!

[jennilou]

Hello Jennifer, thank you for uploading all your english lesson. Through these videos my communication skills have been improving since 2009. I downloaded your videos and put in my files. Once I forgot something, I will just open it. I also shared your videos to my family. Thank you Jennifer. God bless you always.

[Englishwithjennifer]

There are 65 lessons for beginners. More lessons to come!
Visit my website for exercises.
Regards!

[Englishwithjennifer]

Good luck to you! Try using news articles online that also have a podcast. You'll find them on NPR, for example.

[Englishwithjennifer]

Thank you, everyone, for supporting our efforts. Natasha continues to study and, like me, is happy to know that her willingness to try inspires others.

[Englishwithjennifer]

Thank you for the support, everyone! :)

[Rocky-cujc]

Nice teaching Jennifer .the way u are teaching is Most useful for beginners.thank u so much Jennifer

[hajarivonyfaliarivao]

I am so glad to find out your free english lessons. Great! I am Malagasy Missionary. I teach English to the poor people Malagasy here in Madagascar. I just show your lesson through video projector. they enjoy so much your lessons. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Hajarivony Rafieferana
Faly

[Englishwithjennifer]

Thank you for the support. Kind wishes to you!

[Englishwithjennifer]

@spiderman13ful
I hope this series can be of help to you. I'm sorry that my approach for this beginning stage will not make use of captions. Many of my other videos (within the past year or so) have two versions: with and without captions. If you have general language questions, please feel free to ask. Next week I'll open a community forum on my website. :)

[bndwlbt]

SUPER, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Deаr Jennifer!

[Englishwithjennifer]

I'm glad you found it useful. Thanks for watching the lesson.

[Englishwithjennifer]

@osmabe1217
Good question. You're right about a/ an.
THE doesn't change in form, but the pronunciation changes.
Before a consonant sound, "the" rhymes with "uh." (the banana)
Before a vowel sound, "the" rhymes with "see." (the apple)

[Englishwithjennifer]

:) I had a Polish grandmother who taught me a few words. She'd sometimes say things in Polish, and I learned to understand when she'd ask me to do things around the house, like turn off the light or close the door. There are occasionally some similarities to Russian, so that helps, but thanks to Google Translate I can confirm my guesses! Kind wishes to you!

[Englishwithjennifer]

When we want to identify something/ someone for the first time, it's A/AN + singular noun. ("This is Ivan. He's a friend of mine." = Who is Ivan? - A friend of mine.) The general rule is to use THE only if you are certain your listener knows which one you are talking about. ("Do you remember the man I introduced you to? Ivan?" = specific man) Often we need a second mention to make a noun specific, but sometimes it's understood from context which specific person or thing you are talking about.

[Englishwithjennifer]

Yes. Many of my videos use slides. I'm just starting to move away from that a little.

[Englishwithjennifer]

@spiderman13ful
You can only use "the" if your listener understands which one you are talking about. You both must have the same understanding about which dog it is. You'd likely start out with "a" in the first mention: "I just saw a dog outside." > "You did? Was the dog wearing a collar?" See? The other person now knows which one and you are both thinking about the same one. It's now specific, so in the second mention the other person used "the." See also "a collar" = 1st time.

[Englishwithjennifer]

Yes. This is important.
A + noun that starts with a consonant sound: a cat, a book, a man, a woman, a camera
AN + noun that starts with a vowel sound: an apple, an egg, an ice cream cone, an office, an umbrella

[mariana]

You're perfect teacher, congratulations about your work 👏🏻