Articles
Articles are words that modify nouns to tell us if a noun is specific or non-specific. There are two articles in English: the and a/an. The is called the definite article because it’s used to refer to specific things, and a/an is called the indefinite article because it’s used to refer to non-specific things.
Example: I’d like to read the book I bought.
We know this sentence is referring to a specific book because it uses the definite article the. There are many books that exist, but there’s only one specific book that the speaker bought and would like to read.
Example: I’d like to read a book I bought.
We know this sentence is not referring to a specific book because it uses the indefinite article a. The speaker would like to read any book that they bought.
When to use a or an depends on the sound the next word begins with. Use a when the next word begins with a consonant sound. Use an when the next word begins with a vowel sound. Remember that vowels are the letters a, e, i, o, and u, and consonants are all of the letters that are not vowels.
Example: They passed me a pen.
We use a because the word pen starts with a p sound, and p is a consonant.
Example: He’s eating an apple.
We use an because the word apple starts with an a sound, and a is a vowel.
This gets more complicated with words that start with a vowel but are pronounced as if they start with a consonant, or vice versa.
Example: We found a useful essay for our project.
Although the word useful starts with a vowel, u, the beginning of the word is pronounced as yoo, a consonant sound, so the article we use is a.
Example: Andre is an honest person.
Similarly, the word honest starts with a consonant, h, but the h isn’t pronounced. The word starts with a vowel sound, on, so the article we use is an.
Practice:
The vegetable plants were dug up by a rabbit, so Nancy put up a fence around the garden. Nancy found an old bag of seeds and planted them using the best shovel she could find in the tool shed.
Answers:
The vegetable plants were dug up by a rabbit, so Nancy put up a fence around the garden. Nancy found an old bag of seeds and planted them using the best shovel she could find in the tool shed.
Specific: I live in the house that is two doors down from the park, and every day I use the blue leash to walk my dog.
Non-specific: I live in a house that is two doors down from a park, and every day I use a blue leash to walk my dog.
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