English Part of Speech; ARTICLES

 

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English Part of Speech

Articles

Hi, my fellow readers and learners, some of you maybe have heard or listened to the word “article”.  In English part of Speech there are at least 8 part of speech such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, determiner or articles. Right away, we will learn one of the parts of speech, articles. The word article here is not the piece of writing about a particular subject in a newspaper or magazine, on a website, etc., but it is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases.

English evolves two articles: a/an and the. The two sometimes forgotten in speaking, writing or even reading due to their tininess. Right now, I insist you to read and study this part of speech because even though they are small and unnoticed, they play important role and really matters in English. Are you ready? If you are ready let’s dive into the definition of article.

What is an article?

Aside from definition above, basically an article is an adjective (kata sifat). Like an adjective, articles modify or describe nouns (kata benda).

For example:

Red Book = Red is adjective, book is noun.

A house = A is adjective, house is Noun.

An orange = an is adjective, orange is noun.

The man = The is adjective, man is noun.

              How to use a or an?

              Lots of people even English speakers are still confused with the use of a and an. Not many people also understand their use as well. So, let’s learn the use of a and an.  Article a/an belongs to indefinite article. Article a / an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. As we call a/an the indefinite article because they are not specific. For example, a book. When I say a book, I mean any book rather than a specific book.

A/ an is used to refer to a non-specific or non-particular member of the group. For example: I would like to go see a movie.

Here, we’re not talking about a specific movie. We are talking about any movie. There are many movies, and I want to see any movies. I don’t have a specific one in mind. Normally, we use a/an to refer to something for the first time. For example, we went to a museum in Paris. We ate at the museum too.

Remember, using “a” or “an” depends on the sound that begins with the next word. So…

1.      a+singular noun beginning with a consonant.

For example, a boy, a car, a bike, a zoo, a dog.

2.      an+singular noun beginning with a vowel.

For example, an elephant, an egg, an apple, an idiot, an orphan.

3.      a+singular noun beginning with a consonant sound.

A user, a university, a unicycle. (Begins with a consonant “y” sound).

4.      before silent “h”

For example: an honest man, an honorable person, an hour.

The second article we learn is THE

              Let’s learn how to use the article “THE”. The article THE is used to refer to specific or particular nouns. We call “the” the definite article. For example, the most popular movie. Explanation: I mean there are many movies, but only one particular movie is the most popular. Therefore, we use the. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the nouns is specific or particular. The signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. For example: I was happy to see the policeman who saved my cat!

Explanation: here, we’re talking about a particular policeman. Even if we don’t know the policeman’s name, it’s still a particular policeman because it is the one who saved the cat.

Exercises.

1) There is ……. new English book on the desk.

2) She's reading ……. old comic.

3) They've got ……. idea.

4) He is drinking ……. cup of coffee.

5) The girl is ……. pilot.

6) Leipzig has ……. airport.

7) This is ……. expensive bike.

8) Look! There's ……. bird flying.

9) My father is ……. honest person.

10) My friend likes to be ……. astronaut.