It seems that these little words are completely unnecessary. Indeed, why are articles in English? It seems to complicate the life of all foreigners. But this is not so at all, with their help you can express yourself very accurately and concisely, the main thing is to use them correctly.
Articles in English
Like most Europeans, the British in their speech use parts of speech that are slightly scary and confuse the Russian-speaking. Of course, these are articles. They are also in German, French, Italian, and, it seems, in all the Romano-Germanic languages. But in Russian they are not, so for many it becomes a serious difficulty.
So how many articles are in the English language? Modern linguists have recorded only three: definite, indefinite, and zero. The fact that they are extremely necessary is evidenced by at least the fact that in the modern text they occupy about 9%. But how did they come about and why?
History of origin and development
The indefinite article a came from the word one - "one". Sometimes, for the convenience of pronunciation, it takes the form an - this happens if the noun that follows it begins with a vowel. The is the product of the transformation of the demonstrative pronoun that is "that". Of course, it was somewhat difficult to use the initial forms of the concept in which articles are found today, so gradually their modern varieties have become fixed in the language. By the way, the history of origin is very useful for understanding in which cases it is worth saying a , and in which - the .
Article Functions
For many centuries, the English language has formed a fairly simple grammar system for the European language. Here, the article acts as a determinant of a noun, but at the same time gives minimal information - whether it is concrete or abstract, countable or not, whether it was mentioned before. This somewhat simplifies the matter, because, for example, in German, the same part of speech additionally gives information about the case, the number and gender of the lexical unit following it.
In the sentence, the article is placed immediately before the word to which it refers, or before its definition. By the way, this can be not only a noun, but also a substantive adjective and participle, as well as verbal forms. However, this can already be attributed to grammatical wilds. So for simplicity, all these parts of speech can be considered nouns - that’s how they are most often translated into Russian. Also, do not forget about adjectives and numerals, but more on that below.
Article Types
So, as already mentioned, linguists distinguish three types: definite, indefinite, and zero. The latter can be confused with the absence of the article in general, but this is not so - they are used before each noun, and there are no exceptions. It is only important to understand and remember how to arrange them correctly, and then the number of errors will drop sharply.
Use
Certain types of articles in English are obviously needed in different situations. But how to learn this? Each noun has a determinant in front of it - this is the first thing to remember. And the way he is, can affect a lot, down to the meaning of the word. But more often than not, everything is not so scary, and even if you completely ignore the articles in speech, native speakers will understand it. This, however, will look a little strange, for example, as if all the nouns in the usual sentence in Russian were only in the nominative case. When studying foreign grammar, it is worth starting from the fact that it has developed not just like that, which means that it is worth respecting it.
In general, the rules of use are as follows:
- The indefinite article a is used with singular nouns (specific and countable) that are mentioned for the first time. This also applies to the design there is. In addition, the indefinite article is used to designate a person / object as one of many similar to him.
There is a ball on the floor.
I have a doll.
My brother is a student.
- The definite article in the English language is necessary when it comes to a familiar subject or a multitude of them. It is also always used with collective nouns and in front of adjectives in excellent shape. The same applies to limiting definitions, and then in the translation the article will mean "the same".
There is a ball on the floor. The ball is red.
I have the best doll.
Now he is again the Bob I told you about.
If the noun has an possessive (my, your, his, etc.) or an indicative (this, that, these, those) pronoun or numeral, then they replace the article and it is no longer needed.
It would seem that everything is simple. But this is far from all, and you need to know about some of the features that you may encounter.
Special occasions
Learning would be much easier if it was so simple to explain where and how to put the articles. Exceptions in the English language, unfortunately, are not uncommon, but even without them there are many nuances without which, alas, speech will remain illiterate.
Item A (AN):
- coexists with an abstract noun, if there is a descriptive definition;
- may be used before a proper name in the meaning of "certain", "someone";
- faces nouns if it takes the meaning of “one” or “another” (sometimes with uncountable ones);
- used in some stable phrases.
Item THE:
- in English stands next to the surnames denoting the whole family;
- used to indicate a one-of-a-kind concept (heaven, queen);
- used with the names of some states, including the words kingdom, federation, republic, etc.
- stands after the constructions of one of, most of, often after both and all (only with countable);
- used with animate nouns to emphasize the fame of the persons they designate;
- needed before people in the meaning of "people";
- points to collective concepts denoting various social strata;
- a single noun denoting many objects;
- It is placed before the definitions of the same, next (in the meaning of "next"), last (previous), following;
- needed before ordinal numbers;
- always used with cardinal points;
- with oceans, seas, rivers and most other water bodies, with the exception of exceptions (bays and individual lakes);
- with the names of archipelagos, groups of islands;
- with the names of mountain ranges, systems;
- with the names of most international as well as national political and other organizations;
- most often with the names of famous theaters, art galleries, museums, etc .;
- with the names of serious sporting events;
- used in some stable phrases.
Yes, the list is impressive, but it is worth remembering that theory does not matter if knowledge is not applied in practice.
Zero article
Even if it seems that he is not there, he is definitely there. The absence of the article in English, that is, its zero form, is also information about the word that comes after the space. So, the cases of such use are as follows:
- the presence of another qualifier (pronoun, numeral or negative no );
- first used plural noun;
- proper name, names of cities, continents, countries (except for exceptions), months, days of the week, educational institutions;
- abstract noun;
- names of sciences;
- names of newspapers, if the article does not enter there initially;
- uncountable noun;
- names of individual islands;
- names of lakes and bays;
- names of individual mountain peaks;
- newspaper / magazine headlines;
- a noun serving as a reference;
- in combinations denoting playing musical instruments or sports;
- members of the same family in relation to each other;
- in some stable phrases.
It seems to be very difficult, but it's not like that at all. This knowledge comes gradually in the process of learning, so it is usually not necessary to specifically remember these rules. And, by the way, this section is usually mastered much faster than the question of how the article is used in the English language, because there are much more exceptions and special cases.
How to remember?
As in any other field of knowledge, only practice works here. Knowing the theory, you must constantly find its application. Of course, being in a Russian-speaking environment, it is difficult to find an interlocutor, especially if the study has just begun. But in the age of universal computerization, it is not a problem to look for a friend by online correspondence. However, it is worth considering that the practice should be comprehensive, and it is necessary to train first of all the skills of oral speech. First you have to torment and blush, choosing words and remembering familiar expressions, but then you don’t even have to think where to put the article the in English, and where - a . Well, if there are serious doubts, you can go for a little trick and replace it with a possessive pronoun or the word some.