Definite & indefinite articles in English- not as easy as they seem!

'a'/'an'/'the'- simple and innocent looking words that every student of English recognises. They are so easy to spell and you can see them in every English text. Don't be fooled, my dear students, they are one of the most ruthless creatures of English grammar because they don't want to be learned!

Why are they difficult?

1. There are a lot of rules about articles, and knowing rules is not enough, you also need to be able to apply them correctly (the most difficult part).

2. The rules are confusing and difficult to remember. For example, we use 'the' with the names of hotels and museums, e.g. the Regent Hotel, the Science Museum, but we don't use 'the' with the names of airports, stations and other important buildings, e.g. Cambridge University, London Zoo. (eh?!)

3. Sometimes the rules are broken altogether because people omit articles in set phrases where they would normally occur, e.g. We say: 'go to school', 'be at school', 'start school', etc. and not 'go to the school', and so on.

4. For some nationalities, the concept of articles as something that defines a noun is completely alien (any Polish people out there?). This means that some languages do not have a similar grammatical concept and therefore learners often don't understand its function in a language. For example, for a Polish speaking person there is no difference in meaning between 'I saw a man' and 'I saw the man' (The difference is: I saw a man- any man; I saw the man- a particular person that you and I know). What's more, many Polish speakers will frequently make a mistake like 'I saw man'. Man is man, right? I don't need 'a' or 'the' to understand it. ;)

How can I learn articles?

First, it's important not to stress out about the correct use of articles. Of course, they are important and if you want to be a proficient speaker of English, you need to know how to use them correctly, but the bottom line is that nouns carry the main meaning, not the articles. For example, when you speak to an English person and you say 'I saw man', they will understand what you're saying, but if you say 'I saw a...', they won't know what you're talking about. Remember, nouns carry the meaning.

So, how can you learn articles? Practise, practise, practise.

Generally, as far as articles go, it's better just to pick them up from English speakers rather than trying to memorise all the rules. However, knowing rules is sometimes beneficial because it is something you can fall back on when you are in doubt whether to use or not to use articles.

Below, I prepared a very long (but not complete!) presentation that explains rules of using definite and indefinite articles. I advise that you watch it when you are in good mood ;)

My video is too long and is on YouTube!

Finally, have a go at some exercises to practise the use of articles.

A, an, the with answers

Quiz- select the correct answer

Plenty of exercises- follow the links

Select the correct answer

Retelling the story

We agreed that a good story teller keeps their story by including a lot of details in it. Next lesson, you are going to retell the story you'd found in a newspaper or online on a topic that interests you. When you prepare your stories you need to include the following:

• who? (Who is the main character in your story? Are they famous? What is special about them? Age? Marital status? Gender?) 
• where? (Where is your story taking place? Can you briefly describe it?)
• what? (The main events of the story in order, emotions of the characters, your own opinion)
• so what? (What happened in the end? What's the 'finale'/ 'punch line'?)

Also think about what tenses you're going to use and how you're going to interest your audience with your story (Will it be the story itself? Your tone of voice? The pace of your speech? Special words?). Below, I'm including the links to the audio recordings we listened to so that you have an example of a story that is well 'retold' and an example of a story that lacks details and therefore is quite boring. 

Open the links below and click on 'Download file' on a page. The file will open in a media player on your computer. 

Story that lacks details (bad example of story telling) 

Story that includes details (good example of story telling)

I am also putting an electronic copy of the chapter we are working on now. At the end of it, you'll find a tapescript of both stories on p. 17 & 18. 

Chapter 2 Level 1