Indefinite Articles a/an

1. Indefinite Articles a/an • Trabalho realizado por: • Ivo Neves nº7 11ºC1 • Liliana Santos nº10 11ºC1

2. Articles The English language has two types of articles: • Definite (the) • Indefinite (a/an) The usage of the different articles depend on what and who we are talking about: • Something in concrete (that we know and it’s just that thing and no other) – we use “the” (Definite articles) • Something in common (that we know or not and it´s relative to a group) – We use “a/an” (Indefinite articles)

3. Ex: There is one group of five people and just one person has a striped t-shirt. If I want to talk about the member with stripes then I say “the boy with the stripes”. But if I want to talk about the group without any particularity I’ll say, “There is a group of five people.” The articles, both, indefinite or definite are used for countable nouns. We can say: - A tiger is a dangerous animal (any individual tiger) - The tiger is a dangerous animal (all tigers, generic)

4. But we can’t say: - An anger is a bad feeling We would have to say: - Anger is a bad feeling Because Anger is something uncountable, we can’t say two angers, but we can say two tigers, because tigers are something countable.

5. Using the articles When we speak, we say sentences that are formed with a noun, verb, articles (definite or indefinite), etc… even if we don’t realize it, we do say the articles. Mostly in simple sentences like “the bottle had a message”, in the example, both types of articles were used, definite and indefinite. I could say “the bottle had an orange”, now the sentence as changed a bit, but the indefinite article is still there, except it has changed, it was “a” and now there is “an”. The changing was due to changing of the last word, “message” to “orange”.

6. In the first sentence, the word that comes after the indefinite article starts with a consonant and in the second sentence it starts with a vowel. The indefinite articles have to change their appearance to be easier to be read or to be spoken, so: If the word starts with a consonant, the indefinite article is simply “a” – Ex: ABottle If the word starts with a vowel, the indefinite article turns to “an” – Ex: AnApple Basically we use “a” for all the words started with consonants and “an” to all words started by a vowel. Although, the indefinite articles have some exceptions!

7. Exceptions The indefinite articles have some irregularities with some letters or sounds. This happens because it’s the sound that tells us when we should use “a” if the starting letter sound is like a consonant or “an” if the sound is apparently started by a vowel. This way we will have two types of exceptions:

8. Exception 1 When we have a word started by “h” followed by a vowel, when the “h” is unsounded. Ex: - An honest man - An honorary member This is because after the unsounded “h” there is a vowel, so the “h” is there only in the word, because the article is used as if it had no “h”.

9. Exception 2 When we have some words like “union, united, one”, etc… we use the article “a” because the sound of the letter when spoken is the sound of a consonant. - In “union” the sound of the “U” looks like we say “yunion” instead of “union” - In “one” the sound of the “O” looks like we say “wone” instead of “one”

10. Plural Form The indefinite articles can be used in the plural, being formed by “some” after a plural word instead of a/an that is used for singular words. Ex: Plural Singular • I have some apples - I have an apple • I like some dogs - I like a dog “Some” can be used for any word and doesn’t have any exceptions.

11. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) bingo game b) idiot c) energy level d) helicopter e) usual feeling

12. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) a bingo game b) idiot c) energy level d) helicopter e) usual feeling

13. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) a bingo game b) an idiot c) energy level d) helicopter e) usual feeling

14. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) a bingo game b) an idiot c) an energy level d) helicopter e) usual feeling

15. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) a bingo game b) an idiot c) an energy level d) an helicopter e) usual feeling

16. Exercises 1 - Fill the blank spaces with A or An before the words: a) a bingo game b) an idiot c) an energy level d) an helicopter e) a usual feeling

17. 2 – Fill the blank spaces with indefinite articles a) I want __ apple from that basket b) __ apple a day keeps the doctor away c) Our neighbors have __ cat and __ dog

18. 2 – Fill the blank spaces with indefinite articles a) I want an apple from that basket b) __ apple a day keeps the doctor away c) Our neighbors have __ cat and __ dog

19. 2 – Fill the blank spaces with indefinite articles a) I want an apple from that basket b) An apple a day keeps the doctor away c) Our neighbors have __ cat and __ dog

20. 2 – Fill the blank spaces with indefinite articles a) I want an apple from that basket b) An apple a day keeps the doctor away c) Our neighbors have a cat and a dog