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Jan 30, 2020

P20 [PART 1] Grammar: Articles (Not a glamourous subject) Intro / Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Do you struggle to use articles in English? If yes, this episode is for you. It's the first in an in-depth series about articles (a, an, the). This one features a general look at the articles, a quick grammar review and a good look at countable vs uncountable nouns. There's also quite a lot of talk of guns, knives and other ridiculous things.

The full episode script is included below (just scroll down) in the app as a PDF and also is downloadable in normal font size here https://teacherluke.co.uk/premium/pdfs/

Sign up to LEP Premium to unlock this content and all the other premium episodes www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium 

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this new episode of LEP Premium. I strongly suspect that this will be the first in quite a mammoth series of episodes about how to use articles properly in English.

So if you’ve ever struggled to use articles (and I mean a / an / the or no article at all) then this is for you! If you speak, perhaps, a Slavic language, or Japanese or any other language that doesn’t have articles, then I’m sure you’ve often scratched your head over this one. 

Or maybe you speak a language which does have articles, but the rules are quite different to those in English. Also there’s the whole subject of countable and uncountable nouns to deal with, and overall this becomes a bit of a nightmare for everyone! But here we are with this new episode designed to be a sort of flaming torch in the dark recesses of the English language.

If you ever wonder why it seems to take a long time for Premium episodes to arrive, it’s because they take tons and tons of preparation! This one in particular has been quite a huge task. It’s probably more work than my DELTA or my degree, working on these Premium episodes. Because you’re paying I feel obliged to do everything as thoroughly as possible. Also, because we’re dealing with grammar, there are always lots of rules and exceptions which have to be consolidated in a clear and enjoyable way for you. Then I have to make the PDFs, make the tests, do the pronunciation drills, record everything, make it all into good quality MP3 audio, upload it all, and then publish it. It takes a lot of time! I think you should also spend a fair amount of time on these episodes too. Listen several times, use the PDF, do the tests and repeat after me in the pronunciation section. 

So, apologies for the delay, but I think on balance you get at least one series per month plus bonuses like videos and other bits and pieces. Thank you for being patient!

 

Articles: Not a glamourous subject

Despite the fact that in the early history of the English language, the words grammar and glamour used to mean the same thing - the power to charm (in fact grammar, writing and language used to be considered as magical powers that people could use) - so despite that fact, these days grammar is rarely seen as a kind of glamourous, charming or magical subject. It commands some respect - people know it is important, but it’s also a bit sleep-inducing isn’t it? It’s a bit heavy and boring.

But my job is to somehow bring grammar back to its glamourous roots and to find a way to charm you with this subject, and to help you to charm others with your grammar.

What I mean by that is that grammar is important, speaking accurately is important, and despite the fact that grammar is a bit boring, it’s my job on LEP Premium to help bring it to life and help you learn it properly.

So this premium episode (possibly series) is all about one specifically glamourous and charming aspect of grammar and that is ARTICLES.

OK, so articles aren’t that charming, are they? 

In fact, for many learners of English, articles are the weak point, the Achilles heel, that difficult thing that is so difficult to get right.

Partly this is because your first language interferes with your use of articles, but also because articles themselves are just a bit tricky anyway, and truth be told, hand on heart, this is why I have never dealt with articles on my podcast - either in a free lesson or a premium lesson. They’re difficult to teach and explain. Sometimes there isn’t a perfect, simple and understandable explanation for each bit of usage.

But we are going to go into it in full depth covering all possible points, because recently a listener contacted me and asked for a premium episode on articles and so I felt I should rise to the challenge and take this on and see if I can produce a premium series that helps you to improve your understanding and use of articles, in a way that is not just useful but also enjoyable. Challenge accepted. With me luck!

 

What are articles? How are they often used wrong?

Articles belong to a bigger classification of word that we call determiners. Determiners are words that go before nouns and they tell us things like specifically which noun we are referring to, how many there are, and who owns them. 

Demonstratives : this sock, that sock, these socks, those socks

Pronouns and possessive determiners : my sock, your sock, his sock, her sock, its sock, our sock, their sock

Quantifiers : a few socks, a little time, much time, many socks, a lot of socks, most socks, some socks, any socks, enough socks

Numbers : one sock, ten socks, thirty socks

Distributives : all socks, both socks, half time, either sock, neither sock, each sock, every sock

Difference words : other sock, another sock

Pre-determiners : such socks, what socks

But we are focusing on articles here. 

A sock

The sock

Socks

We use articles to show specifically which things we are referring to when we speak, which again, is not as exciting as the action of verbs or the descriptive nature of adjectives and adverbs, but nevertheless they are important.

 

An example of getting articles wrong

Here’s an example of a student of English speaking and getting their articles wrong. You’ll see that although they are small words, they are really important, and for me the misuse of articles is something that will stop you from ever getting to a truly advanced level of English. 

I mean, when I hear mistakes with articles (which usually means that they’re just not used at all) I feel it makes a bad impression, even though it’s a relatively small error, at that moment the person’s level of English drops quite a lot and it starts to sound like broken English.

Here’s an example. I’m going to play the part of the learner of English. Let’s imagine that I come from abroad and I’m working in a language school as an assistant or perhaps a member of technical support or something. But I work in a language school and English isn’t my first language, and my name is Luka.

And I’m going to do this in a very generic foreign accent that could come from pretty much anywhere in the world. This is my attempt at the most non-specific foreign accent that I can do, and it might, move around a bit…

 

Luka at the language school

With articles missing

Luka: Where do you want me to put these books?

Julia: You can put them over there on a chair.

Luka: OK but if I put them on chair and teacher comes in, and let’s say she sits on chair and she sits on books which I have put there, she might get angry and shout at top of her voice “LUUUUUKA why have you put these books on my chair again? If I catch you I will murder you with spoon!!” you see? I don’t want teacher to get angry with me.

Julia: Alright well just put them on my desk here. I don’t think it would be a problem.

Luka: Well, you say it would not be problem but I had friend from my country who worked in language school in London and one day he put some books on teacher’s chair and one teacher she got so angry that she took grammar book and hit him on head with it over and over again very violently and now he is dead.

Julia: Is that story… true?

Luka: No, it is lie, but point is - I would not want to make teacher angry.

Obviously I’m just joking around a bit and trying to make you laugh and I’m not trying to poke fun at anyone, I’m just trying to demonstrate how it can sound without articles. Now, it was possible to understand all of what Luka was saying in that conversation and he was communicating without any issues, the overall effect isn’t great.

I was just leaving out the articles but it was tempting to add other errors into that dialogue too, like some inversion, some 3rd person conjugation and so on.

 

Luka at the language school

With other errors

Luka: Where you want me to put these books?

Julia: You can put them over there on a chair.

Luka: OK but if I put them on chair and teacher come in, and let’s say she sit on chair and she sit on book which I have put there, she might get angry and shout at top of voice “LUUUUUKA why you have put these books on my chair again? If I will catch you I murder you with spoon!!” you see? I don’t want teacher to get angry with me.

Julia: Alright well just put them on my desk here. I don’t think it would be a problem.

Luka: Well, you say it would not be problem but I had friend from my country who worked in language school in London and one day he put some books on teacher’s chair and one teacher she got so angry that she took grammar book and hit him on head with it over and over again very violently and now he is dead.

Julia: Is that story… true?

Luka: No, it is lie, but point is - I not want to make teacher angry.

So that was the dialogue with other errors too and I now feel obliged to go through those errors now that I’ve added them, except all the articles. We’re leaving them until later. This can be a good exercise in general error correction.

A surprise grammar review

OK, find the errors and correct them. Let’s go. Check the previous dialogue, above ↑. 

Answers below ↓

 

Luka at the language school

With other errors (highlighted and corrected)

Luka: Where you want me to put these books? (where do you want…)

Julia: You can put them over there on a chair.

Luka: OK but if I put them on chair and teacher comes in, and let’s say she sits on chair and she sits on book which I have put there, she might get angry and shout at top of her voice “LUUUUUKA why you have put these books on my chair again? (Why have you put…) If I will catch you I will murder you with spoon!!” you see? I don’t want teacher to get angry with me.

Julia: Alright well just put them on my desk here. I don’t think it would be a problem.

Luka: Well, you say it would not be problem but I had friend from my country who worked in language school in London and one day he put some books on teacher’s chair and one teacher she got so angry that she took grammar book and hit him on head with it over and over again very violently and now he is dead.

Julia: Is that story… true?

Luka: No, it is lie, but point is - I would not want to make teacher angry.

Back to articles

But let’s just focus on the articles here. Obviously I’m sort of  trying to make you laugh here. Perhaps I could go through that dialogue again but keep my accent as normal as possible, but with no articles. What does it sound like? Again, the articles are the words a, an and the.

See if you can correct any errors that you notice. Listen again and I just want you to spot the times when an article is missing. There are 15 missing articles in fact. Can you find them?

I’ll go through it line by line now.

Luka at the language school

With errors - line by line


Luka: Where do you want me to put these books?


Julia: You can put them over there on a chair.


Luka: OK but if I put them on chair and teacher comes in, 

~ OK but if I put them on a chair and a teacher comes in,  

and let’s say she sits on chair and she sits on books which I have put there,

~ and let’s say she sits on the chair and she sits on the books which I have put there,


she might get angry and shout at top of her voice 

~ she might get angry and shout at the top of her voice 

“LUUUUUKA why have you put these books on my chair again? 


If I catch you I will murder you with spoon!!” 

~ If I catch you I will murder you with a spoon!!” 


you see? I don’t want teacher to get angry with me.

~ you see? I don’t want a teacher to get angry with me.


Julia: Alright well just put them on my desk here. I don’t think it would be a problem.


Luka: Well, you say it would not be problem 

~ Well, you say it would not be a problem


but I had friend from my country who worked in language school in London 

~ but I had a friend from my country who worked in a language school in London 


and one day he put some books on teacher’s chair 

~ and one day he put some books on a teacher’s chair 


and one teacher she got so angry that she took grammar book 

~ and a teacher she got so angry that she took a grammar book 


and hit him on head with it over and over again very violently 

~ and hit him on the head with it over and over again very violently 


and now he is dead.


Julia: Is that story… true?


Luka: No, it is lie, but point is - 

~ No, it is a lie, but the point is - 


I would not want to make teacher angry.

~ I would not want to make a teacher angry.

 

This is going to be a pretty heavy and geeky grammar episode, but I find that the geekier these episodes are, the better they are, so let’s take a deep-dive into articles in this episode. 

It is complicated so you might not get it all the first time round but I suggest you listen carefully, use the PDF provided, do all the tests and drills and you might find it really helps you get a grip on this tricky little area of grammar. And I really mean that you have to do all the stuff, use all the material provided, repeat after me in the pronunciation section or this won’t work properly. I’ve put a lot of time into this, particularly this episode and so the results should really shine through when you follow my instructions.

The Rules of Articles

When do we use the and when do we use a / an ? When do we use no article at all?

Basically, it comes down to this.

The difference between the and a / an

When you are talking about a thing, for example an object in your house, does the other person you are talking to, does that person know specifically which thing you are talking about? 

If yes, then you can use THE.

Give me the pen.

  • The other person knows which pen you are talking about
    • Maybe there is only one pen on the table
    • Maybe it’s in his hand
    • Maybe you’ve talked about it before

Give me the pen.

I’ll drive the car.

What’s the time?

If the other person doesn’t know which pen you’re talking about, or maybe you’re not talking about one specific pen you’d use A or AN.

Give me a pen.

 

  • The other person doesn’t know specifically which pen you want
  • You just want one pen

Give me a pen.

Have you got a match?

Let’s get a pizza.

If you’re not talking about one specific thing, but rather talking about things in general, use no article.

Students are getting more and more independent in their learning.

Time is money.

How do we know if the other person knows what we’re talking about? (choosing between the and a / an)

We need to go into the details of why the other person would know what you’re talking about. And there are plenty of reasons why.

For example

  • We’ve already mentioned it before
  • We say which ones we mean after the noun
  • It’s obvious which one we mean
  • There’s only one there
  • Superlatives and some other expressions that suggest only one thing

It’s not just that.

There are also grammatical distinctions like in the case of countable or uncountable nouns and whether it is possible to use articles in those cases.

Then there are the cases when we use no article, and also the pronunciation of articles in natural sentences.

So it’s going to go something like this.

Contents of this series (I told you it was a mammoth one)

 

  • A review of countable and uncountable nouns
  • Basic differences
  • When we use the
  • Pronunciation of the
  • When we use a/an 
  • Pronunciation of a/an
  • When we use no article
  • Real examples of Articles in Use (Learn English with The Beatles)
  • Tests (very extensive!)
  • Pronunciation Drills

 

This is like writing a book!

When researching this I used A Practical English Usage by M Swan, How English Works by M Swan / C Walter, and also my own knowledge and experience.

As we go through this I have chosen to make the examples as interesting as possible. In some cases I am using words like “gun”, just to spice things up a bit.

  1. Countable / Uncountable / Plural / Singular

Articles are determiners, which mean those words that go before nouns as I said before, so their use depends largely on what kind of nouns we are using.

So let’s briefly have a recap about Countable / Uncountable / Plural / Singular nouns.

Basically, nouns can be countable (singular / plural) or uncountable.

Countable nouns vs Uncountable nouns

A countable noun is one singular thing that can be counted in plural form.

They have two forms. The singular form (when there’s one) and the plural form (when there’s more than one).

Of course we express the plural by adding s in most cases.

For example

A gun

Two guns

An engine

Two engines

An example

Two examples

There are also some plurals which are irregular, like:

A person

Two people

A child

Two children

A woman

Two women

Uncountable nouns only have one form, and they can’t be counted.

They often refer to substances or abstract concepts and ideas.

Love is what the world needs.

This city is running out of clean air.

Did you buy milk at the shop?

Respect is hard to come by in this industry.

In terms of articles and countable or uncountable nouns, it goes like this.

 

Countable nouns - singular

We can use a / an or the for singular countable nouns. 

I saw a man.

I saw the man that you were talking about.

He lives in an igloo.

There’s the igloo, there.

Singular countable nouns really like to have a determiner before them. It’s rare to find one all on its own unless it’s a name.

A cat , the cat, your cat, her cat, this cat, that cat etc, but not just cat unless it’s someone’s name.

I was talking to Cat the other day. 

 

Exceptions - when you don’t use an article with a singular countable noun.

There are some exceptions to this that I can think of off the top of my head.

I’m going to school.

I came home at 8pm.

She’s going to university in September.

I’ve just come back from college.

I’m not going to work tomorrow.

Do you still go to church?

I’m playing football tomorrow morning.

We’ll be looking at exceptions later.

So, basically - you can use a / an / the before singular nouns and it’s very common.

 

Countable nouns - plurals

We can use the  or no article here.

Because a basically means one we obviously can’t use it with plurals, as far as I’m aware.

So, we don’t say

Can you pass me a pens?

or 

I saw a men in the street.

Obviously.

(Actually, thinking about it, I can remember hearing this sometimes when I worked in the kitchen of a big pub and the chefs and waiters would say things like “Can I have a chips and an onion rings please!” But they were talking about one portion of chips or onion rings.)

But you do hear people using the or no article with plurals. Here are a couple of examples. We’ll go into the specific reasons why you’d use the or no article later. But try to get a sense of how these mean different things. 

Are they the women you were talking about?

Women take ages to get ready, don’t they?

Here are the phones that you ordered.

Phones are still pretty expensive these days. 

Uncountable nouns and articles

Basically, you can’t use the indefinite article (a / an) with uncountable nouns

So you wouldn’t say

Can you give me an advice? (because advice is uncountable)

You need to give me a respect.

I need a fresh air.

We haven’t got a space for a big TV.

But you would say

Can you give me advice?

You need to give me respect.

I need fresh air.

We haven’t got space for a big TV.

Using the is also possible but it changes the meaning, as we will see.

Can you give me the advice?

You need to give me the respect.

I need the fresh air which you can find in the mountains.

We haven’t got the space for a big TV.

Let’s have a quick look at how using the in those sentences changes the meaning, and how we might need to add some things for it to make sense.

Can you give me the advice (that we talked about)? (you know which advice he means because it was maybe mentioned before)

You need to give me the respect (I deserve). (You qualify exactly which respect it is - it’s the one you deserve - it’s common to have qualifying relative clauses after a noun with the)

I need the fresh air (that is outside). (Again, defining it with a relative clause. TBH I would rather say “I need some fresh air.”)

We haven’t got the space for a big TV. (This is actually exactly the same, but meaning one suitable spot for it, or maybe it implies “the space that you need” again, defining it with a relative clause.)

It’s also common with uncountable nouns to use some or any.

Can you give me some advice?

You need to give me some respect.

I need some fresh air.

We haven’t got any space for a TV.

There are cases when some nouns are both countable and uncountable, but usually the countable plural is just a unit of the uncountable noun.

Like, some coffee and a coffee (meaning a cup of coffee).

Let’s buy some beer.

Let’s buy some beers. (bottles/cans)

How much sugar do you have?

How many sugars do you have in your tea? (spoons)

Can I have some water?

Can I have a water from the fridge? (a bottle)

Etc

 

Some common errors with countable and uncountable nouns

Since we are on the topic of countable and uncountable nouns, I would just like to remind you of a few common errors that I hear all the time.

And this is that some nouns are uncountable in English when they might be countable in other languages.

Such as

Advice

Information

Furniture

Luggage

Evidence

Training

So it’s not: 

Can you give me some advices

Can you give me an advice?

It’s: 

Can you give me some advice?

Can you give me a piece of advice?

And similarly with the other words in that list.

I went to a training.

I went to a training session. I had some training.

How many luggage do you have?

How much luggage do you have?

They provided plenty of evidences at the trial.

They provided plenty of evidence at the trial.

I have an information for you.

I have some information for you.

So there we have it, the basic ground rules of when, grammatically, we use articles with countable and uncountable nouns. But there’s so much more.

 

RECAP - ARTICLES & COUNTABLE / UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Let’s just recap what we’ve learned so far though. This is just the grammar and doesn’t fully cover all the little shades of meaning.

We use A / AN

With singular countable nouns 

 

  • a child
  • an elephant
  • a television

 

It might be because it’s the first time we refer to a person, animal or thing, or 

because the other person doesn’t know which one specifically you mean, or 

because it’s not important. 

It’s the indefinite article, non-specific, just one of the possible options.

We use ONE (or more) instead of A/AN when the number is important.

There is only one exit from the airport.

I’ll go into more details, including pronunciation and differences between A/AN later, but there’s the basic stuff. Singular, countable nouns.

We use THE

With everything! 

A singular countable noun:

Pass me the guitar.

A plural countable noun:

Pass me the matches.

An uncountable noun:

Pass me the wine.

 

Differences between using THE and NO ARTICLE

What’s the difference between 

Love and the love.

Air and the air.

This is where things can get a bit tricky. 

Love is what the world needs. (general)

Can you feel the love that exists between us? (specific, defined)

Air pollution is a big problem in most cities. (general)

The air pollution in this city is terrible. (specific, defined)

I’ll be going into lots of differences and explaining things like how we use all the articles differently for slightly different things.

Then there’s NO ARTICLE

We use this with plurals and uncountable nouns.

It’s used to refer to things in general.

  • Crime is an important issue. (NOT The crime is an important issue)
  • Indian food is spicy. (NOT The Indian food is spicy).

It’s also used for the names of certain things like:

Names of people, books, films and plays (unless it is part of the title).

 

  • I have seen Withnail & I. 
  • I have read Hamlet.

 

Towns, cities, states and countries.

 

  • London
  • Yorkshire
  • Scotland

 

(Exceptions – The USA, The UK, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, The Philippines).

Lakes, single islands, continents or mountains.

  • Loch Ness
  • Jersey
  • Africa
  • Mt Kilimanjaro

Planets

  • Venus
  • Earth
  • Uranus

Sports or games

  • Football
  • Cricket
  • Skateboarding
  • Chess

Meals

  • Breakfast 
  • Lunch 
  • Dinner 
  • Tea
  • Supper

So that’s the recap of the grammar of how articles are used with countable and uncountable nouns, but what about all those unanswered questions that are still remaining about articles.

What about all the common, typical mistakes that people make? 

How can we really learn this stuff? 

 

Well, listen on and you’ll find out.