Articles - Grammar Hints for ESL students and others

Articles, that is, use of the words "the", "a" or "an" are "troublesome" for "speakers whose first language is not English" (Hacker 169). Let's discuss this trouble area in more detail in today's blog.

Articles are used mainly to mark nouns. Consider the following phrases:

the Speaker of the House
a lovely sunset
the best Merlot of the year
a Rolls-Royce
an apple
the pear on the table
a better way of doing business

1. Use "the" if the identity of the subject is known the speaker. As in:

Colonel John Sheppard flew the Puddlejumper directly into the Wraith ship.
Spock went to the planet Vulcan to save his mother.
The fourth contestant had to eat worms.
This is the town where I grew up.

2. Use "a" or "an" with singular non-count nouns whose identity is not known to the writer. Count nouns refer to objects which can be counted such as three girls, five cities, two general strikes, two World Wars, five dogs and so forth. Abstracts concepts, such as love, harmony, knowledge cannot be quantified in this way. Therefore, we cannot say:

He has a knowledge. Instead we would generally say, "He has knowledge." However, we could say: He arrived at our house in a car.

3. Therefore, we can say generally that with abstract concepts we do not use the words "an" or "a" or "the" with non countable nouns. So, we can say:

Honour is a concept well understood in the military. I feel love.
However, if a non-countable noun such as "sugar" is quantified you can say the following:

He needs a kilogram of sugar to make that cake.
We are going to buy two Victorian end tables.

4. Do not use "the" in a sentence when you use a plural or non-count noun meaning "all" or "in general".

Fountains distinguish a fine perennial garden.
Flour is required to make bread.

If you have any further questions regarding this post, please email me at:

ulsmdltutor@le.ac.uk

Have a good weekend until next time.

KB