When To Use Definite vs Indefinite Articles in English

want to speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com hi everybody my name is Alicia in this lesson I'm going to talk about how to use and the and when to use no article so let's get started okay first want to begin by talking about using and and these are the indefinite articles that we use in English regarding pronunciation you might hear people use or you can choose whichever you prefer they're both correct so we use the indefinite article or an when we want to introduce noun so that means it's our first time using the noun like when we're telling story for example so the first time we introduce the noun we use or an to do that so we use if the following noun begins with consonant sound consonant sound some examples of this cookie this is consonant sound pen this is consonant sound and fish so this is consonant sound so if the next word if the following noun begins with consonant sound we should use the indefinite article then we use and when the following noun begins with vowel sound so some examples of this are an Apple so here we have as our vowel sound we use and and apple and egg here the sound and then an hour so here this is vowel sound so this is great example of this note that want to mention sound does not equal spelling so said when the following noun begins with vowel sound we use an here yes we have the consonant beginning this word but it makes vowel sound an hour hour so it's like the doesn't make that sound so an hour we use this indefinite article and instead of so please be careful we're listening for sound not for the spelling in this case okay then as you can see we use the indefinite article before nouns in the singular form only so for example you don't see at the end of these words we can only use the singular form so meaning one of something only the singular form when you're using the indefinite article so very simple example simple sentence using the indefinite article is got dog we might start story with this got dog so dog is in the singular got one dog this is new dog I'm introducing this dog to my conversation so use to do that okay let's compare this now to the definite article the is the definite article in English so we use the to refer to known or specific noun so this can be something that we directly explain or we just understand it from the context so relating to this point something that we understand from Context or specific noun this can be when there's only one of something so great example of this is some countries for example the United States of America or like the Republic of so and so let's begin with the so there's only one of that and we understand that we use the in cases like that it's in like the title okay so we use that to talk about things we know about so something that we heard earlier in conversation or earlier in story for example or when we know what the noun is so we can use this before singular or plural forms of nouns so here's an example got dog which we saw before got dog bought bed for the dog here I've used the because in this sentence mentioned this dog the dog in this sentence is the dog bought or got rather in the first sentence so I'm introducing it here got dog this is my introductory statement kind of my full sentence here's this new information this new noun got dog in my next sentence want to mention this same dog use the to describe that bought bed for the dog you'll also notice here I've introduced another new thing bought bed for the dog so I've used the indefinite article here this is another new thing but want to refer to the same known noun that introduced in the previous sentence okay so this is an introduction to using the definite article now let's look at when to use no article so no no and no the we use no article when referring generally to group or all instances like all kinds are all types of something we use this lot when we're talking about things we like or dislike for example so we use the plural form of the noun we do not use the singular form we need to use the plural form very simple example of this is like dogs like dogs so you'll see here I've used the plural form dogs so by saying like dogs it means like all instances of that like all examples of dogs all different kinds of dogs like dogs okay so let's continue on then to short story example that prepared so this example includes uses of the indefinite article the definite article and cases where we'll see no article there are couple points want to talk about so let's take look last weekend took bus to park near my neighborhood walked around the park then found place to sit down and relax read book took photos and enjoyed watching the people at the park but got bit by bug hate mosquitoes so this is very simple story about something that happened recently this is past tense story and features indefinite definite articles and no article so let's take look last weekend took bus so I'm introducing bus this is the first case where I'm explaining bus in my story so took bus to park near my neighborhood so park near my neighborhood this means there could be other parks near the neighborhood want to talk about one in particular to park in my neighborhood walked around the park so here used the to refer to this park introduced earlier in my story walked around the park this park talked about before then found place to sit down and relax so my next step was to find place so I'm using here because the place is just any place just chose one specific place to sit down and relax this could be any place want to talk about just one in particular okay then said read book so again I'm using here to introduce this so have not talked about the book before want to introduce my book to the story read book took photos so here there's nothing you'll notice took photo could say took photo if took one photo but maybe if took lot of photos would say took photos took photos and enjoyed watching the people at the park so this the think is pretty clear at the park so I'm talking about the specific Park visited this one however I've included in parentheses watching the people at the park why did do this so there are some cases where it's correct to use the and it's correct to use no article this is one example of that here enjoyed watching the people in the park and enjoyed watching people in the park those are both correct sentences actually there's not really difference in meaning here because I've included location here like if said enjoyed watching the people might be confused as The Listener like which people who were you watching so saying watching people at the park makes it clear that it's only about people who were at the park if want to be extra specific and give extra emphasis can include the here watching the people in the park like this is the thing was focusing my attention on in the park so you can choose to include it you can choose not to include it they communicate the same thing but this is one example of situation where you could use you could use the article or you could choose not to okay then our last sentence but got bit by bug bug so again new thing something new is in my story bug in this case by one bug then finish with this expression hate mosquitoes so mosquitoes are those small bugs that bite you and it gets really itchy mosquito but I'm making general statement all mosquitoes hate mosquitoes maybe because they bite so use the plural form hate mosquitoes with no article hate mosquitoes so this is simple example of situation or story where you would use definite indefinite and no article to explain something that happened to you so hope that this lesson gives you good introduction to how and when to use and and that and no article but if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making story in the comment section please feel free to do so of course if you enjoyed the video please don't forget to give it thumbs up 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