Hey there! This is TOP episode 172. Articles (a, the) 1
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Hello and thank you for joining me today. Articles! A, an, the and zero article. We won’t discuss them all today, but only one group. Indefinite articles, that is ‘a’ and ‘an’. I’ll come back with ‘the’ and zero articles I promise. But, you know me! I like to go slow with grammar. Practice a lot. Stay with me till the practical part and download the worksheet.
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Indefinite article ‘a’ and ‘an’. First of all, what’s the difference between a ‘an’? Well, it boils down to pronunciation. If the word starts with a consonant it’s gonna be ‘a’ like in:
a dog, a cat, a cup, a song, a university. A university. Notice, that ‘university’ starts with a vowel letter, but the sound that we pronounce is a consonant sound: a university. As I said from the off, it’s all about pronunciation not how the words are spelt.
If the word starts with a vowel sound it’s gonna be ‘an’ like in: an apple, an elephant, an idea, an acorn.
Now, let’s talk about the use of this article. First and foremost what we, speakers of Polish need to embrace is that articles exist in English, unlike in Polish. But that doesn’t serve as an excuse. I mean, the fact that in Polish articles don’t exist. That’s hard for us. Look at Spanish in Spanish there are both definite and indefinite articles: un, una, la and le.
We have to learn using articles ad that’s it.
What I would like you to remember forever is that every English noun needs an article. Absolutely every noun. It may be a, an, the, but it may be zero articles, no article. Please remember every noun requires an article. The end! Ok, and today we’re looking at the indefinite articles.
We use the indefinite article ‘a’or ‘an’ in these situations:
One.
With singular countable nouns when we refer to them in general. hen saying ‘a’ or ‘an’ we mean ‘one’. For instance:
I bought a dress.
What do I mean by that? I bought one dress. One of many dresses in the world. I bought a dress. One dress.
Two.
We use ‘a’ or ‘an’ to refer to an unspecified thing with the meaning ‘any one’. For instance:
Sit on a chair.
Sit on any chair. I don’t care which one, there are many chairs in the room, sit on one of them. Any of them.
Three.
To show price in relation to weight. For example:
Twenty euros a kilo.
To show distance in relation to speed, for example:
20 km an hour.
To show frequency. Like in his example:
I go swimming twice a week.
Four.
When we mention something for the first time. Listen to this sentence:
I have a cat. The cat is black.
Five.
When we talk about jobs. He’s a teacher, she’s a babysitter, he is a nurse, she is a firefighter.
Time to practice. Listen and repeat these sentences out loud:
My husband drives a lorry.
Sally is an accountant. She works for a multinational company.
We are looking for an apartment.
I own a cat and two dogs.
I ate an apple yesterday. The apple was juicy.
I go swimming twice a month.
It costs 20 euros a kilo.
My car can go 140 kilometres an hour.
When she left home, she was wearing a blue jacket and a blue and white blouse.
A study showed that we were wrong.
We have just started the topic. Stay tuned, there’s more to come. That’s it for today though! Now, go to your inbox and get the worksheet to test yourself. Translate the sentences into English. If you aren’t a member of TOPeople download the worksheet from teacherola.com/172. By doing that you’ll become a member and receive my weakly newsletter.
If you find this episode useful, tell your friends about my podcast. Thank you so much for doing so! I’ll see you next Wednesday! Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud! Bye!