English Articles

Introduction

You have already studied some rules about using the articles. So, here you'll be able to revise the rules and practice.

Good luck!

Task

First of all, please, revise some rules about using the articles:

 

A/an

The

The noun is mentioned for the 1st time


ex. Yesterday I met a girl in the cinema.

The noun is mentioned for the 2nd time


ex. The girl was 19 years old.

The general meaning (вообще, «каждый»)


ex. A rose is a nice flower.

The generic sense (как вид, тип)


ex. The telephone is a useful device. (Телефон (как явление) – удобное устройство)
The tiger has the reputation of a man-eater. (Тигр (как вид) имеет репутацию людоеда)

Any/one (любой)


ex. She needs a pen to write with.

This very/a certain (именно этот)


ex. I need the book you have been talking about.

A descriptive attribute (описательное определение)


ex. She wears a nice warm coat in winter.

A limiting attribute (уточняющее определение)


ex. I like the coat she is wearing.

After the verbs: be, get, have

 

ex. You are an actress.
I want to be a driver.

The unique objects


ex. The sun/the world/the Moon

In the exclamatory sentences (восклицательные предложения)


ex. What a man!

For the plural meaning ‘these very’ (для множ. числа в значении «именно эти»)


ex. 1. Children like ice-cream. («Все» дети любят мороженное)
2. The children were sitting in the room watching TV. («Определенные» дети сидели в комнате и смотрели телевизор)

 

The articles with the names of meal.

No article

Ex. I was having tea with her.
John came to lunch at the appointed time.
They met for dinner.

 

The Indefinite article is used when there is a descriptive attribute:

Ex. That was a decent lunch.

Walter wanted a very special dinner.

 

 

The articles with the names of parts of the day.

Set-phrases:

The

No article

in the morning

in the daytime

in the afternoon

in the evening

in the night

 

at night

by afternoon

past midnight

till night

all day (long)

all night

day after day

day and ight

The articles with geographic names.

The Definite article

  1. With the names of some countries if the name shows a status of the country:

Ex. Russia BUT the Russian Federation

America BUT the USA

The USSR

The UK

2. Name of oceans, seas, rivers and lakes:

Ex.

a)     Oceans: The Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Arctic

b)    Seas: the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the North Sea, etc.

c)     The English Channel (Ла-Манш)

d)    Rivers: the Thames, the Volga, the Nile, the Amazon, etc.

e)     Lakes: the Ontario, the Baikal, etc. BUT Lake Baikal, Lake Ontario

 

3. Theatres, museums, concert halls, cinemas, clubs, hotels

Ex.

The Coliseum Theatre

The Opera House

The Bolshoi Theatre

The British Museum

The Tate (Gallery)

4. Ships and boats

Ex.

The Titanic

The Sedov

5. Newspapers and magazines

Ex.

The Times

The Guardian

  

The articles with local nouns.

Local nouns: church, university, school, hospital, bed, prison, market and so on.

No article is used if we mean ‘the institution’ BUT the definite article is used if we mean the building of prison, school, etc.

Ex.

She works at the hospital BUT He was sent to hospital to check his heart.

Process

And now to practice these rules, please, do some tasks here:

http://learningapps.org/180414

http://learningapps.org/466501 

http://learningapps.org/1242764 

http://learningapps.org/1704287 

http://study-english.info/exercises-article.php 

If you have any questions or you find any example interesting, make some notes in order to talk about it during the next class!

If you are good enough in these exercises, try these tests and check your answers:

https://www.native-english.ru/tests/articles 

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/mixed-english-articles3.html# 

http://www.study.ru/test/testlist.php?id=38 

Evaluation