Lesson 3A Grammar — Articles

• I can use articles to talk about general and specific things.

Look at a, the and no article in the text: why does each noun take the one it does?

Would you live in a passive house?

Traditional houses need a lot of energy to keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Test the rules: a/an, the or Ø?

We use ___ with the names of people, places and most countries.

We use ___ with singular countable nouns.

We use ___ with uncountable nouns.

We usually use ___ with seasons.

We use ___ with names of mountain ranges, oceans and rivers.

We use ___ before superlative adjectives.

We use ___ with continents.

We use ___ for something we have mentioned before.

We use ___ with groups of people.

We use ___ with jobs.

Put it together: Zaid in the wild

Write it: five sentences about home

1 I / live / in / flat / near / city centre / in / Amman

2 I / have / dream / of climbing / Jabal Umm ad Dami

3 I / prefer / mountains / to / sea

4 I / once / went / to / hospital / for / operation

5 I live near / River Thames / which flows through / London

a/an: one of many, or new

• It is one of many of the same class:
• it is one of many of the same class, e.g. a job, an apple.
• We mention it for the first time:
• we mention a person or thing for the first time:
• I’m reading a really good article.

the: we know which one

• Mentioned before:
• I’m reading a really good article.
• The article talks about …
• Unique:
• Half of the population live in the capital.
• Defined by the words that follow:
• My grandmother is still the head of the family.
• We also use the with:
• superlatives: The largest city in Jordan is …
• comparatives (when identifying one of a pair): I have two sisters. The older sister lives in Egypt.
• ordinal numbers: The first time I went there was in 2018.
• decades, centuries: in the 1950s; in the 18th century.

No article: general statements and institutions

• Plural and uncountable nouns in general statements: no article.
• Life was very hard and over one million people emigrated.
• Institutions used for their purpose: no article.
• I go to school every day.
• He’s been in hospital for two weeks now.
• Most place names: no article.
• We also use zero article with most place names.
• (exceptions: the USA, the UK, the UAE, the Hague)