Listen to this lesson (English audio, MP3)
Please activate Javascript for view MP3 player
What do you think of this audio recording?
Now in this story you will see many different uses of the articles. First I will give you some brief notes on when to use the definite article "the" and when not and also when to use the indefinite article "a/an" and again when not. Afterwards you can read the story.
Articles — both definite and indefinite
Indefinite — a, an
Uses
- Before a singular noun which is countable when it is mentioned for the first time and represents no particular person or thing.
"A horse is a noble animal."
- Before a singular countable noun which is used as an example of a class of things.
"A book is something you read."
- With a noun complement, including names of professions.
"She is a doctor, he became a famous actor."
- In certain numerical expressions.
"a dozen, a hundred"
- In expressions of price, speed, ratio.
"60 miles an hour, 4 hours a day, 30p a box"
- With "few" and "little"
"a few people, a little sugar"
- In exclamations before singular, countable nouns.
"What a pity! What a sunny day!"
- It can be placed before Mr., Mrs, Miss, Ms + surname.
"a Mr. Brown phoned today."
Not Used
- Before plural nouns.
"Horses are noble animals."
- Before uncountable nouns
"Milk is good for you."
- Before abstract nouns.
"Fear is natural."
- Before names of meals except when preceded by an adjective.
"We had a late breakfast and decided to miss lunch."
Definite — the
Uses
- Before nouns of which there is only one.
"The earth is round."
- Before a noun which has become definite as a result of being mentioned a second time.
"We saw a good film last night. It was the film you recommended."
- Before a noun made definite by the addition of a phrase or clause.
"The woman dressed in black."
- Before a noun which, by reason of locality, can represent only one particular thing.
"There’s a bee in the kitchen."
- Before superlatives and "first", "second" and "only"
"The longest river in the world."
- Before singular nouns used to represent a class of objects.
"The donkey is a very obstinate animal."
- Before an adjective used to represent a class of persons.
"That tax hurts the rich."
- Before names of seas, rivers, chains of mountains, groups of islands and plural names of countries.
"the Pacific Ocean, the Thames, the Andes, the West Indies, the Netherlands"
- Before musical instruments.
"She plays the piano"
Not Used
- Before countries, towns, proper names.
"Charlie lived in Chicago in America"
- Before abstract nouns.
"Jealousy can be dangerous."
- Before parts of the body and articles of clothing — these normally prefer a possessive adjective.
"Lift your left arm."
"He removed his hat."
"Charlie the Brave"
Charlie is
a teacher and his wife, Maria is
an artist. One of
the main differences between
the two is that Charlie has no imagination well perhaps
a little whereas Maria has
the most vivid imagination you could think of.
Now
— imagination is
an essential quality if you’re
an artist but sometimes it can lead to
— problems. Take
the night before last, for example. It was
a fine summer night and you could see
the moon and
the stars quite clearly, it was shortly before
the longest day of
the year. Charlie was sitting in
a deckchair enjoying
the warm summer air when he felt something touch
his shoulder; it was Maria’s hand and he could tell immediately she was
a little worried about something. He had noticed this sensation
a hundred times before. He asked her what
the matter was and she replied that there was
a strange thing on
the jacket that was hanging in
the bedroom. Now you must remember that they had both lived in
the West Indies and had seen
a lot of strange creatures in their house before. But now they were living in
— England and so Charlie just laughed and said he would have
a look at
the "thing".
He left
the garden and made his way to
the bedroom. He could see
a jacket hanging in
the bedroom and went up to it to have
a closer look at
the"thing". The moment he touched it,
the thing sprang into
— life. Now Charlie experiences
— fear like the rest of us but when this creature opened
its wings, he jumped out of
his skin and ran screaming from
the room like
a small child doing about 100 miles
an hour.
What
a fuss you may say and
the brave among you may well regard such behaviour as pathetic but
— bats (for this thing was
a bat) bring out
the worst in many people. For a moment
the next-door neighbours thought that Charlie was murdering his wife because of
the noise they could hear. In fact
the bat was
the one that was frightened and it fluttered
its wings and flew from one side of the bedroom to
the other.
Eventually Charlie managed to trap
the bat in
a box and went out into
thefront garden clutching
the box as if it had
a bomb inside it, took off
the lid and
the bat, obviously delighted to be free, flew away into
the dark. Eventually Maria, who had been playing
the guitar while Charlie was upstairs, asked Charlie if he had found out what
the thing was. "Oh, nothing to worry about", he said casually hoping that
the terror could not be seen in his eyes, "it was just
a bat."
Dear Friend, if you have any questions or comments regarding this article,
please click here.
If you have any English grammar or vocabulary questions,
please post them on this English Grammar Forum.
