The articles are used as a service word with nouns in the general case or with other parts of speech acting as a noun in the general case. The most primitive way of explaining how to separate the indefinite and definite article of nouns in the English language is as follows: “an unfamiliar countable only subject - / a /, / an /; a familiar item of any size - / the / ”. But there are a huge number of categories of words and phrases for which the use of a particular article is regulated “as an exception”. Therefore, we can say that there is no single simple rule that tells how to use articles in English. The table brings together and classifies many special cases.
The logic of the use of articles
Often the distinction between these groups is conditional, so it can be difficult to establish which determinant to use, and even more difficult to understand why this is happening. Nevertheless, in reality, all of them can be connected by a common logic, which is not always obvious:
- / a / and / an / is always some part of the general;
- / the / - it is always something unique, integral, concrete;
- zero (zero article) is always something universal, that is, words that do not require additional representation or clarification.
Functions and position of the article in the sentence
There are many nuances of using nouns, which are clarified depending on which articles in the English language are used in a particular case. The articles help us understand the role of a noun in a sentence. They give an idea of the number, condition of the subject, the attitude of the speaker to it, locality.
The article either takes place immediately before the noun, or, if the noun is part of the phrase, before all words that are dependent.
Mandatory use of the article. Zero, indefinite, definite
The question is not in what cases the use of articles in English is required . Because every noun or any other part of speech that acts as a noun needs an article, or otherwise a zero article - that is, its substantiated absence. Thus, the question is which article to use in a given situation.
Indefinite article
The indefinite article has two phonetic forms - / a / and / an /.
The open form / A / is read as [ə] and is used with words beginning with a consonant. If the first word is a vowel, but when pronouncing with the initial sound, the consonant appears, then open articles are also put in the English language. Examples: / a universe / universe /, / a Europe / Europe /.
The closed form / An / is played as [ən] and is placed before vowels. This also applies when a word begins with a consonant, which is omitted when pronouncing, for example, / an hour /.
The indefinite article was once represented by the numeral / one /, and subsequently reduced to / a / (/ an /). He gives some new information about an object that is impersonal, whatever in the sentence - often he defines it in a category or transfers properties of many similar ones to one object. In the sense here, as a rule, you can substitute / some /.
Definite article
The definite article in English - / the / - has two forms of pronunciation - [ði] [ðə], which in writing are no different from each other:
- [ði] is pronounced in front of the vowel, for example, / the airport /;
- [ðə] is read before the word beginning with the consonant / the port /.
The definite article in English came from the Old English demonstrative pronoun / se / that / and partially retained its indicative meaning. He isolates an object from the category of similar objects or separates the group into a single whole - and in both cases it concretizes the position of the object (s). Here you can mentally try on / that /.
Zero article
The zero article is the missing article. There are specific situations in which articles are omitted in the English language, the table lists some of the most widely applicable principles of use.
As a rule, words without any service identifier have a more general meaning. In the case of a singular or uncountable concept, we can neither separate the subject of the conversation, nor separate it into a category, and in the case of plurality we cannot operate with the totality as a single whole. For example, we can ask apples - / Give me apples /, but they are only a set of identical objects, a bunch that breaks up with any movement. And we can ask, say, to show the United States of America - / Show me the United States of America /, and in this case they will, in essence, act as an indivisible whole. There are special cases in which zero articles are used in the English language. The table below allows comparing with the cases of / a /, / an / and / the /.
/ Some / or / any /
Sometimes an indefinite numeral-pronoun / some / or / any / is used instead of the null article if the noun is a phenomenon or abstraction, and also if the plural or uncountable concept is used. Thus, / some / and / any / can be substituted as some kind of article in cases when / the / does not fit, you can not use / a / or / an /, but there is a desire to make semantic emphasis.
Special Case Table
It is necessary to consider special cases of use in order to understand how to arrange articles in English. The table contains situations grouped by meaning in which the use of a definite, indefinite or zero article is required.
| / a /, / an / | / the / | zero |
the general | general concept of the subject first item appearance if a word is used with a definition of a descriptive property, even if the word has an abstract or uncountable meaning the transfer to the subject of properties of many similar objects with quantitative words having approximate specifics - / a pair / pair /, / a little / little /, / a few / several /, / half a / half / before a countable concept in a construction with / what / before the countable concept in the construction / there is / at the mention of a random representative of a certain category instead of the numeral / one / one / | reappearance of an item direct reference to a specific subject contextual and indirect reference to a specific subject, in particular: isolating an item based on with ordinal , with an adjective in excellent shape, with a proper name in the composition before unique (single) words in a general sense (without descriptive or specific details) - / the sun / sun /, / the moon / moon /, / the Earth / Earth /, / the floor / floor /,
/ the sea / ocean /; considered the uniqueness of both global and local scale before the words denoting the whole class, the totality in front of other parts of speech, except for the noun, which have acquired the meaning of the plural noun - / the strong / strong /, / the old / old /, / the young / young / if it is necessary to emphasize the importance of the subject among other subjects of the same class | with words in the plural, which in the singular would be used with / a /, / an / with abstractions and substances in a general sense before objects and phenomena that cannot be described empirically (innumerable) in the general sense if the word has a related pronoun in the object case if nouns in the general sense (/ reading / reading /, / smoking / smoking /) if a defining numeral is behind a word with nouns in the comparative construction, or in the construction with prepositions |
subject | before profession designation | before surnames that are in the plural, nationalities before ordinal numbers with musical instruments with body parts before the names of countries and geographical names in the plural, mountain ranges, archipelagos, lakes without a word / lake / lake / | with sports with days of the week, months and holidays before meal time with academic disciplines with constellations in front of proper names, titles and ranks and when handling in the names and headings of the printed editions of articles, on signs in front of monolithic names of cities and states, streets, squares, parks, names of continents, individual islands, mountains, lakes with the word / lake / lake / as part of the name |
established usage | / such a / such as /, / rather a / rather /, / quite a / very /, / a lot of / many /, / a great deal of / worth a lot, / as a rule / usually /, / at a loss / for lack of, / for a while / for some time /, / in a hurry / hastily /, / to have a good time / have a good time /, / it's a pity / what a pity /, / to do somebody a pleasure / give someone pleasure /, / it's a shame / it's a shame /, / what a shame / what a shame /, / twice a day / twice a day, / as a result / as a result / | / the sooner ... - the better ... / the sooner ..., the ... /, / the next / next /, / the only / single /, / the previous / previous, / the right / right / right /, / / the same / the same /, / the upper / upper /, / the very / most /, / the wrong / false / wrong /, / the central / central /, / the coming / coming / coming /, / the following / next /, / the last / last /, / the left / remaining /, / the main / main /, / in the morning / morning /, / in the afternoon / afternoon /, / in the evening / evening / , (/ at night / at night /) | / to appoint ... / assign /, / to elect ... / elect /, / on foot / on foot /, / by heart / by heart /, / by car / by car /, / at home / home / |
Articles for preschool age
English articles for preschool children are best given in the form of practical examples, without emphasizing the regularities of the arrangement from a grammatical point of view.
This will train their visual and auditory memory at the level of motor skills and help set up their speech center. Subsequently, when studying the grammar of the language, an intuitive instinct will contribute to their orientation in the rules and special cases.