Explaining articles in the English language- Part 3: When to omit articles ...continued... Some other general rules about articles: -Don't use an article if you are referring to something in general. "I love to watch soccer (football) games" means that I love to watch any soccer games. Consider this dialogue between Sarah and Nathan: Sarah: I love to watch soccer games. Nathan: Any soccer games? Sarah: Well, no, mostly just European soccer. Americans don't take it seriously enough. Although Sarah admitted she likes to watch specific soccer games, it would have been incorrect for her to say "I love to watch the soccer games" unless she and Nathan had already been talking about Europe. Also, it would have been more correct, in that case, if she had said "I love to watch their soccer games." However, what Sarah could have said to Nathan with or without any previous context is "I love to watch European soccer games." This brings us to my next point. -Don't use articles when you use possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their; if you are going to replace possessive adjectives with an article, "the" will almost always be the appropriate article. For example, let's say my friend Nathan is using my friend Sarah's computer, but he doesn't realize it is her computer. He might say "I am almost finished using the computer." (Remember, he is talking about a specific computer, so he wouldn't say "a computer.") If he knows it's Sarah's computer, and if we have been discussing Sarah already, he could say "I am almost finished using her computer." If we have not been discussing Sarah, but Nathan knows it is her computer, he would say "I am almost finished using Sarah's computer." Unfortunately there are a lot of situations you will just have memorize when it comes to knowing when to leave out an article or use it. For example, we don't say "I'm going to watch the TV" even though we are going to watch a show on a particular TV. We think of "watching TV" as a general activity that doesn't need an article, so we say "I'm going to watch TV." Here are some more examples of sentences that don't need articles. Feel free to ask questions if you would like me to explain why! "I am going to play soccer outside." "I don't like to eat broccoli." "I love talking on skype, but I don't have much time to do it." "My brother refuses to read books." "I enjoy taking naps." OK feel free to comment or send me other questions!! :D

Explaining articles in the English language- Part 2: "The" (definite article) This is a continuation of my last entry (by the way, I forgot to mention- "a" and "an" are "indefinite articles" and "the" is a "definite article"): The purpose of "the:" "the" communicates specificity. If I say "she lives by the river" I am communicating that you and I both understand which river I mean when I say "river." For example, maybe the river is a famous river, or maybe we both know this river very well because we live in the same town and have swum there often - or maybe it is the only river in the area. Another difference between "the" and "an" is that you can use "the" with plural nouns as well as singular nouns. For example, we can say "the pieces of paper" or "the piece of paper." We cannot say "a pieces of paper" because nouns must be singular in order to use the article "a." OK, I admit "the" can be very confusing when you are trying to decide whether or not to use an article at all. Why do we say "the Ukraine" for example, yet we say "Russia" and not "the Russia." I really don't know why we say "the Ukraine." It's a little strange, I admit. Let's just memorize that one and move on to something that makes sense. When to use an article, and when to leave it out: Let's say you want to talk to someone about taking pictures (photography). You don't want to make them think you are talking about taking specific pictures, but rather just taking pictures in general. You might say "I enjoy taking a picture of every new place I visit." But what if you take more than one picture when you visit a new place? You should say "I enjoy taking pictures of every new place I visit." Don't replace "an" with "the" just because you now are using a plural noun. That would make your listener think he or she ought to know exactly what pictures you are talking about, which would confuse him or her. The word "pictures" is still a general noun for your purposes. Now suppose your listener responds with the question "what do you do with the pictures?" He or she is now referring to specific pictures - the ones you were telling him or her about, the ones you take when you visit a new place. Now you should use "the" and might say "I print the pictures and put them on my wall in my bedroom." Notice you could have said "the wall in my bedroom," too. I'll have to save that lesson for a future notebook entry. :) Looks like I'll need one more notebook entry to finish discussing articles :)

I'd like to explain the difference between articles in English :) Part 1: "A" and "An" I recently received a message with a question about English articles of speech. The writer asks about the differences between "'a', 'an' and 'the.' When in English don't [people] use an article with a noun? For me, this is a very complicated thing in the grammar." I thought maybe others would like to read about this, too, so I decided to answer him through a notebook entry. Articles in English are not useless. They actually have a very useful purpose, and when you know the purpose for each type of article it is much easier to know when to use which one. Like any language rule, however, there will be a few exceptions that you just have to memorize. :) IN GENERAL this is how to know when to use an article, and which article to use: The difference between "a" and "an:" these are actually the same article. "An" is used instead of "a" when it precedes a noun that begins with a vowel. You would never say "a apple" or "a animal." Rather, you would say "an apple" or "an animal." The only time this can become confusing is when you communicate with someone who speaks "British English" - sometimes they ignore "h," a consonant, at the beginning of words. For example, Americans say "a horse" but someone from England might say "an horse." This is not always the case (it depends on the speaker's accent), but it's just something you might need to know someday. This small irregularity is really not too important to remember. :) The purpose of "a" and "an:" use "a" or "an" when discussing a noun (see, I used "a") that is singular, yet vague. I'm going to use the sentence "she lives by ___ river" to demonstrate my point. If I say "she lives by a river," I indicate that my intention is not to communicate exactly which river she lives by, but rather to communicate the fact that she lives by some sort of river. Or, perhaps I don't know very much about the river she lives by (I used "the" just now because I wanted to indicate that I am talking about a specific river now - the one I already brought up to you, the one in my sentence, the one she lives by), so I want to communicate that the river is either not very important for what I am trying to communicate, or that it is still vague in my mind - I could be communicating both of these things, too. OK this is getting to be too long, so please read my next notebook entry for a continuation of this lesson. :)