User:Tony1/How to use "the" and "a" in English


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'''UNDER CONSTRUCTION. IT'S IN A MESS. DO NOT USE YET'''

Non-native speakers: the English Wikipedia needs YOU. Globally, non-native speakers of English far outnumber the natives, and hold a vast repository of information that can enrich the English Wikipedia. In many cases, it's different information from what natives are likely to know. But you probably already know that English is obsessed with sets and subsets, and to write proper English, you need to be able to use the grammatical "articles": "the" and "a" (and what we call "article blank") to experess sets and subsets – for just about every noun you use. "Articles" in the grammatical sense are quite different from the "articles" you edit on Wikipedia.

There are three ways you will benefit from learning how to use these pesky little words correctly:
 * readers and listeners will no longer need to make an effort to understand you, even if they have partially adapted;
 * getting sets and subsets right will pay huge dividends in all walks of life where you use English.

The horrible truth is that each noun will require you to ask three basic questions about it. At first, these questions will take time, but as you become more practised, you'll automatise this task; eventually, you won't even have to think about it. This page will set you on a course to such ease of use by providing exercises to help you to acquire the appropriate skills. The three questions are:
 * 1) What is the basic context (set or subset)?
 * 2) Is the noun "countable", and is it singular or plural?
 * 3) Does the noun have special rules for articles?

We start with the first question, which is conceptually the most difficult.

Recognising sets and subsets
English is obsessed with sets and subsets. Every noun in a text will fall into one of three basic contexts. This noun will refer to either:
 * A – The whole set (all or any of it, all of them – everywhere or anywhere)
 * B – An undefined subset (one of many, some of many (or the exact identity is unknown or unspecified)
 * C – An exact subset (exactly this, exactly these, or exactly this type of thing)

First, we'll present you with correct sentences and ask you to determine which of these contexts is involved. Here's what to do:
 * 1) First, click on [Show] to the right of "The question" and try to determine the answer.
 * 2) Click on [Show] to display the answer.

All you will need to decide is whether the noun, or "thing" at issue (coloured and bold face) is A, B or C. Don’t be concerned about which article is used; at this stage, all that matters is that you can distinguish the three basic contexts – A, B or C. Remember, these examples are all correct.

Recognising wrongly used articles for the context
Having learnt how to recognise the three basic contexts in correct examples, we'll go to the next step: reading sentences that may be correct or incorrect, to learn how to spot where the article is wrong for the context. To do this, we need to familiarise you with a few facts.

Three, not two articles
Although we've talked only of a/an ("I see a dog", "He boiled an egg") and the ("I live in the third house"), there's another article that is known as "article-blank"; that is, it functions by the absence of an article before the noun ("Children love ice-cream").

º, a/an, or the

The "of" rule
""Weird Al" Yankovic parodies THE pop and rock music of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and satirizes [but not THE here ... ] American culture and experiences of the same time period."

Exercise ?a
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The dogs' barking is contagious. (c) this one exactly Cyclones are formed by pressure under the earth’s surface. (a) all volcanoes, everywhere (b) one of many Our science class mixed sulphuric acid with water today. (b)

Lesson 2: countability
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Geography
You need to memorise where and where not to to use "the" before geographical names; we've tagged each list with YES (do use "the") or NO (don't use "the").


 * NO: Continents (North America, Antarctica)
 * NO: islands (Manhattan, Kangaroo Island)
 * NO: lakes and bays
 * NO: mountains (Mont Blanc)
 * NO: Most countries (Vietnam) and states (California)
 * NO: cities and towns (Capetown), suburbs (Mayfair – in London), and streets (Kent St);


 * YES: Points on the globe (the Equator, the South Pole, the Tropic of Cancer)
 * YES: Geographical areas (the Antarctic, the Arctic, the Northern Hemisphere, the East)
 * YES: Rivers (the Murray), oceans (the Atlantic), seas (the
 * NO: mountain ranges (the Southern Alps, the Jurals
 * YES: deserts, forests, peninsulas, gulfs (the
 * YES: A few countries (the US, the UK, the Netherlands, the Phillipines, and a few others)

Yes: DFGAMPROPS

No: IRLBCTSSCC

Other usage

 * NO: languages and nationalities: (Arabic, Japanese, English)
 * NO: sports (football, cricket, skating)
 * NO: academic areas (psychology, physics, history, chemistry)