Nathan Carr Fullerton : Some Important Rules to Use Articles
Hi friends, myself is Nathan Carr Fullerton. I belong to Fullerton, California, USA.. Yesterday, I received a query from a non-native English speaker. He wanted to know how he could use articles (a/an/the) correctly in his blog. I informed him several rules that I believe would be very much helpful for him. I am writing this blog to help everyone who faces difficulties in using articles correctly.
First of all, I, Nathan Carr Fullerton, would like tell you that articles are kept in two categories: definite article and indefinite articles. ‘The’ is called definite article and ‘a’ and ‘an’ are called indefinite articles.
Now, I, Nathan Carr Fullerton, would like to tell you some rules that would help you use the articles correctly.
- ‘The’ is a definite article. You should use this article when you know that speaker and listener both know about the thing about which you are writing.
I want to wear the dress that you worn yesterday.
- You should use ‘a/an’, when you know that either or speaker or listener is unknown to the thing about which you are writing.
I am looking for a church for prayer.
- In most of the cases, we use ‘a/an’ with the first mention and after that we use ‘the’.
I want to buy a pen for me.
- If a noun is followed by an adjective and the noun is non-specific, you have to use a/an’ before the adjective. The selection of article would depend on the pronunciation of the adjective and not noun.
- You should use indefinite article when you have to talk about membership in a group.
I am a teacher by profession.
He is a sales professional.
- Never use ‘the’ before the names of cities, towns, villages, streets, lakes, mountains, and most of the countries, and continents.
- Don’t use an article before the names of languages, nationalities, sports, and academic subjects.
I, Nathan Carr Fullerton, believe these rules would really be very much helpful for you to use articles properly. Wait for my next blog on articles, I would explain you about article in detail in that blog.
