Articles

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

Articles

Let's see how much we know already. 

How many articles are in the following sentences?

A white dog is lying on the floor in the corner of the room. The dog's name is Snow. It has a yellow collar and is eating a carrot. It has a nice-looking toy laying next to it. 

The answer

A brown dog is lying on the floor in the corner of the room. The dog's name is Bailey. It has a blue collar and is eating a steak. It has a ripped-up toy laying next to it. 

The sentence has 8 articles in it.

Articles

Articles are placed before a noun. In English we know two types of articles: THE and A or AN 

Examples: 

The book is on this shelf is mine. 

I’d rather eat a pear than an apple.  -> today we practice these two articles

the

We use 'the' when the listener knows what we are talking about, because we said it before.

'My aunt and uncle got a puppy. The puppy is so cute.'

We use 'the' when there is only one of that thing that matters.

'I went to the Pyramids of Egypt.'

a/an

We use a/an when something is new, unknown or introduced to the listener.

'My aunt and uncle got a puppy. The puppy is so cute.'

We use a/an when we don't care which one exactly or when we're talking about something in general.

'I started reading a good book yesterday.'

The articles a/an

 A is put before: consonant sounds

a pet               a teacher           a uniform

a car                  a door               a room

 

The articles a/an

An is used for a noun starting with vowel sounds

an ear              an hour                       an officer

an apple            an Englishman          an answer

 

ATTENTION!

So, the choice of a or an is not what you read on paper, but the sound you hear.

Sometimes you see a noun starting with -h.  However, you do not hear it! Then you put the article AN before it:  AN hour, you do not hear the -h.

 

More examples

• an hour  (you hear our)
• an honour (you hear onour)
• a university (you hear juniversity)
• a uniform (you hear juniform)
• a European (you hear jeuropean)

a of an?
..... dog

1. a
2. an

a of an?
..... banana

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... artwork

1. a
2. an

a of an?
..... house

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... apple

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... uniform

1. a
2. an

A

AN

table

house

egg

chicken

island

phone

orange

a of an?
.... ear

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... plant

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... hero

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... commercial

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... hour

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... game

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... university

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... avatar

1. a
2. an

a of an?
.... FM-radio channel

1. a
2. an

A of AN?
.... president

1. a
2. an

Get to work

We'll continue with a Kahoot!