Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Articles
Most uses of the word the show that I, (the writer) know that you (the
listener/reader) know who/what I am referring to or whether it is a specific person
or thing.
o The assignment you are working on
o The diagram we looked at this morning
Once a topic has been introduced, a speaker or writer can use the word the to mean
people or things that are normally present in that situation.
o If someone is talking about a company they visited or work at, they can say
the employees, the office, or the boss without having to be specific as to
which employees, which office or which boss.
Some uses of the word the do not have any rules relating to their use and,
unfortunately, such situations are not always clear. For each instance the usage just
has to be learnt on a case by case basis.
o The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
The indefinite article a, is the normal or neutral way of referring to one thing. In
other words the speaker or the writer has no specific thing in mind when making the
statement.
No article is often used with uncountable nouns: for example, chocolate, glass or
wine. Consider the difference between:
The second one suggests that it is one type of wine from Marlborough and that there
are others.
Some uncountable nouns have quite a specific meaning when used with the definite
article a. Consider the difference between:
Nouns with geographical names follow no clear pattern and are difficult to predict.
The rules relating to their use just have to be learnt, together with the nouns with
which they are used. Consider the difference between:
Is it a countable noun?
Yes No
Remember, the use of articles is closely related to the context and the shared knowledge
and understanding between the reader and the writer.
To continue your development of the correct use of articles, look for examples in books and
journals and see how they are used in each context and note them down, especially if their
usage is unusual.
There are also many websites that include exercises relating to the use of articles and the
associated grammar points. Some recommended website examples include:
http://www.eslcafe.com http://dartmouth.edu http://webster.comnet.edu/grammar
Good luck with your writing and enjoyment of the English language.