Articles – English Grammar Lessons

ESL Library Articles What are articles? Articles are little words that come before nouns. Nouns can be people, places, or things. The articles in English are an, and the. For example: car an apple the moon Which article do we use? It depends on how many nouns there are. Nouns can be singular or plural. Singular means one. Singular articles are an, and the. For example: book an umbrella the sun We use when singular noun begins with consonant. chair dog tree We use "an" when singular noun begins with vowel. an elephant an ice cube an orange We can use "the" when singular noun begins with consonant or vowel. the pen the owl the TV Plural means two or more. We can use no article or "the" with plural noun. For example: tree, trees an elephant, elephants the cat, the cats the egg, the eggs Which article do we use? It also depends on the type of noun. Nouns can be general or specific. noun is general when it's one of many. We don't know which noun it is, and we usually can't see it. We use an, or no article with general nouns. For example: want cookie. He needs an eraser. She likes animals. noun is specific when it's only certain one. We know which one it is, and we can usually see it. We use "the" with specific nouns. For example: The sunset is beautiful tonight. The bank is closed. The flowers are yellow. Let's compare general and specific articles and nouns. Do you need pen? You can use the blue pen or the red pen. Do you want snack? You can have the cookies or the fries. want to buy new jacket. Should buy the red jacket or the green jacket? Look at the picture and say or write sentence using an article. For example: The bank is open. Now you try! Thanks for watching!