a (or an) is used with countable nouns to indicate one.
Can I have a cup of tea?
I've got a daughter and two sons.
a is not used before a plural noun (NOT I've got a sons).
a is not used before uncountable nouns (NOT I want a petrol, please). But we use it when there is an adjective which describes the noun: a highly educated population, an important role
Don't forget a:
Do you want a cup of tea? (not 'Do you want cup of tea?')
Alice works in a bank,(not 'in bank')
I want to ask a question,(not 'ask question')
When I was a child,I liked reading stories.
- Birmingham is a large city in central England.
-an (not a) before a/e/i/o/u:
They live in an old house, (not 'a old house.')
A mouse is an animal. It's a small animal.
Can you give me an example, please?
- This is an interesting book.
- I bought a hat and an umbrella.
also an hour(h is not pronounced: an (h)our)
but a university a Europeancountry
We use a/an for jobs etc.:
- 'What's your job?'
'I'm a dentist.' (not 'I'm dentist.')
- 'What does she do?' 'She's an engineer.
- Would you like to be a teacher?
- Beethoven was a composer.
- Picasso was a famous painter.
- Are you a student?
another(an + other) is one word (not 'an other'):
- Can I have another cupof coffee?
- Open another window.It's very hot.
1. Fill in the indefinite article: a or an.
apple
ball
cat
doll
egg
fat
grass
hat
Indian
jam
kite
lamb
man
orange
nurse
onion
purse
queen
rain
star
train
umbrella
van
watch
box
yacht
zoo
object
2. Enumerate the nouns that need an indefinite article. Which nouns from the list need no article at all?
Family Relations:
sister
brother
widow
widower
child
children
daughter
son
stepmother
stepfather
stepsister
half brother
Write sentences from the brackets (). Write a or an where necessary.
1. (I bought newspaper)I I bought a newspaper
2. (we went to party last night) .
3. (my brother is artist)
4. (its beautiful day today)
5. (I ate sandwich and apple) .
6. (Britain is industrial country)
USE
The Indefinite Article A and the Definite Article The
a is used with countable nouns to indicate one:
I've got two bikes and a car.
She's a lawyer.
He's a teacher.
a or the is not usually used before names of villages, towns, streets, cities,
countries or continents: She lives in Paris. We went to India.
the is used when we speak about things that we know or can understand or when a word is used a second time: He gave me a knife and a spoon. The spoon was dirty. I bought a pen and some paper, but I left the pen in the shop, the 2002 census.
the is used before names of seas, rivers, groups of islands or mountains, kingdoms, republics, deserts, plural names of countries: the Atlantic Ocean, the River Thames, the Netherlands, the Arctic (land and sea), the Antarctic (land and sea), the Alps, the United States of America, the United Arab Emirates, the Pacific Ocean, the Black Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic, the Urals, the Far East, the Sahara, the United Kingdom, the Nile, the Gobi Desert
the is used in the + noun + of: the Constitution of 1993, the capital of Russia, the life of Napoleon
the is used when only one object exists: the earth, the sun, the River Thames, the President, the legislative power, the State Duma, the Federal Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the world
the is used with adjectives in the superlative degree:the largest ethnic groups