Articles © Cindy Leibel 2015 – Please do not use without written permission.

There are 2 types of articles: DEFINITE INDEFINITE

Definite Articles – WHICH ONE? They mean you know EXACTLY which thing you are talking about. In English, we only have one: THE There are 3 big reasons why we use them. THE sun THE man with a silly hat THE best city in THE world

When we use “THE” A) There is only 1 that we can talk about The sun The world The floor The sky We don’t ask, WHICH sky?

When we use “THE” B) We give extra information about them to make it clear WHICH one we’re talking about the man with the strange hat the best city in the world the man that I just met

When we use “THE” C) We already talked about them. A cat bit me. The cat was orange. I was walking when I saw a lady. The lady was wearing a red dress. The dress was very long.

THE It is the same for singular or plural. THE men with silly hats THE best cities in THE world

INDEFINITE ARTICLES

Indefinite Articles INdefinite articles show us The listener DOES NOT care or know which thing(s) we are talking about The things are NEW. A door (this could be any door) A man came into the room (this is a new idea; we didn’t know about him before).

Indefinite Articles a, an, and some. An apple was on the table. Some apples were on the table.

Indefinite Articles Be careful – we don’t use “some” in negative sentences! We use any instead! There aren’t some apples on the table. X There aren’t any apples on the table.

NO ARTICLES

When we often use no articles With general nouns With indefinite noncount nouns With pronouns and proper nouns I see the cat. I don’t like cats. I need butter. I need (some) butter. I have your pencil.

Questions Answered in This Presentation What are the different articles? What is the difference between DEFINITE and INDEFINITE articles? When are the 3 times we use DEFINITE articles? When are the 2 times we use INDEFINITE articles? When are the 3 times we use NO articles?