A, AN, THE - Articles in English

Hello, and welcome to the next video. Today, I'm going to teach you about a very difficult, confusing, fun, maybe, grammar point called "articles". Really?

Yeah. Articles are confusing. There are many, many rules in English about articles.

I do not have the time, the energy to teach you all of them, but I'll do my best. Okay? What are articles, first of all?

Articles are "a", "an", and "the". Articles come before a noun. A noun is a person, a place, or a thing.

So I'm going to generalize here and say that before most nouns in English, you have to use an article. Of course, there are millions of exceptions to what I've just said. Sometimes, we do not use an article with a noun.

That's a whole other lesson, a whole other time warp for your brain. We're going to stick to these ones. When to use "a", "an", and "the" before a noun in a proper English sentence.

We use these when we speak, when we write, and they're very important in grammar. So there's no way to avoid these. I'll help you.

Don't worry. The first one is "an". "An" is easy.

It's the easiest. We'll do this one first. "An" is a singular noun.

It's used in a singular noun. It's an article. We use it before the noun that starts with a vowel.

Now, the pronunciation of this word sounds like "vowel". The vowels in English, we have five vowels in English. They are "a", "e", "i", "u", and "u".

Now, everyone who speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, any of our Latin American friends or our Latin language speakers, you're going to mix up these two vowels, "e" and "i". Let me teach you one thing that'll help you. If you can remember that you have to dot your "i", you're going to get the pronunciation of this word.

So this word or this letter -- sorry. When you write this letter, you always have to put a dot in the middle of a word. So you're going to remember that this "i", you can make a nice little "i" here to help you.

So "i". When you write this word by itself, you have to use a capital. So this would only be in the middle of a word.

But the pronunciation is the same. "i". So if you have a vowel -- "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" -- that begins the noun, you have to use "an".

For example, "i". We have to say "an i" because the word "i" begins with a vowel. If the word begins with this letter "i" -- for example, "ice cream".

We have to say, "I'd like an ice cream. " Do you like ice cream? Or if the word begins with a vowel sound.

What is a vowel sound, Ronnie? A vowel sound is usually always the letter "h". For example, the word "hour".

We do not even say the "h" word. It sounds like we're saying "hour". So because this word "hour" sounds like a vowel, because the "h" is silent, we have to say "an hour".

Okay? You got it? You with me?

"An hour". So "an" we use before a vowel or before a vowel sound, usually a noun that begins with an "h". The next one is "a", the very first letter of our alphabet.

"A" is a vowel. Don't let that confuse you. "A" we use for, again, a singular noun.

All of these are going to be used with singular nouns. If the noun is plural, if the noun has an "s", do not use an article. So "a" we use for a singular noun in a general form.

You can think of this easier as replacing it with the word "any". So if you go to a coffee shop and they have five muffins, and they're all the same muffin, you're going to say to the person that works at the coffee shop, "Hello, I'd like a muffin. " You do not get to choose or pick what muffin you get.

You can choose the flavor, but you cannot specifically choose which muffin you would like. It's the same as saying "any". It's like saying, "I'd like any muffin.

Just give me a muffin. I want a muffin. " "I'd like anything.

Just give me something. " It's used for when you don't care which one it is. You just want one of something.

"A". If my nose was stuffy and I had to blow my nose, I would ask someone, "Do you have a Kleenex? I don't have to go through the box of Kleenexes.

" "No, I don't want that one. " "Yes, this -- no. " You're just going to get a Kleenex, and you're going to blow your nose.

So "a" and "an", the only difference is "an" you use before a vowel. As an example, you can say, "I'd like a cookie. " I was going to write "coffee".

Maybe I want a coffee right now. But I would definitely rather have a cookie. I don't care which cookie you give me.

Just give me a cookie. I'm a cookie monster. Okay?

So "I'd like a cookie. I'd like any cookie. " The next is "the".

The next is "the". "The" is opposite to "a". "The" means something very, very, very specific.

General and specific are opposites. This means you actually choose which one you are going to get. Think about this when you go shopping.

You do not walk into a store and go, "Hi. Could I have a shirt? I don't care what it looks like.

I don't care how much it is. Just give me a shirt. " This never happens.

Ladies, when you go shopping for shoes, you just don't go into the shoe store and say, "Just a pair of shoes, please. Just a pair of shoes. Don't care.

Size 8, fine, anything. " No. We want to go through all of the shoes.

We want to try them all on. We want to get a handbag and match them with our shoes and choose the shoes of our dreams. So you're going to not say "a pair of shoes".

You're going to say "the shoes". Another very confusing thing about "the" is the second time you talk about the same noun in a phrase, you have to put the second noun with "the". For example, this is a little more difficult.

"I bought some fruit. " "Fruit" is an uncountable noun. If the noun is uncountable, we do not use an article.

"I bought some fruit. The fruit was bad. " "But Ronnie, you just said if it's an uncountable noun, we don't use an article.

What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? " No.

This is a grammar rule. The first time I talk about the fruit, I use no article because it's uncountable. But the second time I'm talking about the same noun, I have to.

I don't know why. I just have to. It's a rule.

So I have to say "the fruit". "The fruit was bad. " The third point when we use the article "the" -- the article "the" -- I'm using articles all the time -- is when the speaker and the listener or the reader -- whatever, if you're reading or listening -- know -- they both know -- which noun you are talking about.

For example, if you and your friend go to the same school, you have to say "the school". If I was talking to my friend on the phone, and I said, "Hey, yeah. Oh, I left my book at the school.

" My friend and I both know what school I am talking about. In my city, there are 2. 5 million schools.

There's a lot of schools in Toronto. There are 2. 5 million people.

And a lot of people go to different schools. But because my friend and I go to the same school, I have to say "the school". "I'm going to go to the school tomorrow.

" You and I both know we're talking about the same one. The next one is we use with countries, but only 1% of the countries of the world. So I ask you, "What country are you from?

" "I am from Canada. " We have listeners from all over the world. I would guarantee that 99% of you would not use an article with your country name.

"I come from Canada. " Below Canada, there's a country -- it's a big country called -- anyone know? Below Canada?

Geography time. The United States of America or, shorter, the USA. A lot of people, their ancestors in Canada came from a country or group of countries called the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom. There's a country in the Middle East called the United Arab Emirates. Is anyone from there?

I went there once in an airplane. It's cool. The United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates.

All of these three countries, we have to use "the" because there is the word "united" in the title of the country. I do not say "the" Canada. I do not say "the" Japan.

If the word has "united" in it, I say "the". The second one is if the country has more than two words in the name, you're going to say "the". For example, New Zealand.

New Zealand only has two words. I do not say "the" New Zealand. If it has more than two words, I have to put "the" in front of the country.

The last one is the most difficult. If you are like me and did not do well in geography class -- this one's hard -- we have to use "the" if the country is comprised of tiny or small islands. I do not expect everyone in the world to know which countries are made of small islands, but to help you out, off the top of my head, the Philippines.

If you look on a map, the Philippines has many tiny little islands that make one country. Another example would be the West Indies, the Canary Islands. These are all places that have small islands that form one country.

So if you look at Japan, for example, Japan has maybe five or more islands, but they're quite large, so we cannot use this as "the" Japan. They have to be very small islands. I hope you understand this.

If you have a question, please leave me a comment. If you need more help with this, please ask me. Bye.