Ways of presenting articles

2.1 Ways of presenting articles

In the process of teaching English, teachers should pay special attention to countable and uncountable nouns. The distinction between countable and uncountable nouns must be clearly understood because it affects our choice of articles.

Countable nouns are words like cat, bridge, house, idea. We can count them (one cat, two houses, three ideas), so they can have plurals. The indefinite article a/an really means one, so we can use it with singular countable nouns (a house, an idea), but not with plurals.

We live in a small house.

I’ve got an idea.

I’m afraid of spiders.

She was wearing blue trousers.

Uncountable nouns are words like water, rice, energy, luck. These are things that we can divide (a drop of water, a bowl of rice, a piece of luck), but not count. You cannot say one water, two waters, etc. These words do not have plurals. The indefinite article a/an cannot be used with uncountable words.

It’s nice weather. (Not: … a nice weather.)

Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. (Not: A water…)

A lot of words can be both countable and uncountable, with different meanings or uses (e.g. iron, an iron; coffee, a coffee). Some plural words have no singular (e.g. trousers, scissors).

Putting it in another way, we can use:

a/an or the +singular countable: a hat – the hat,

the or zero + plural countable: the hats – hats,

the or zero + uncountable: the water – water.

A very important point: singular countable nouns must always have an article (or another determiner like my, this). We can say a cat, the cat, this cat, my cat, but not cat. Do not leave out the article before the names of professions.

Alice is studying to be a doctor. (Not: …to be doctor).

In order to show the difference in using definite and indefinite articles with countable and uncountable nouns I use pictures and tables (see Appendix 1). There is a great number of exercises which can help students to understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. For example:

1.  Which of the underlined parts of these sentences is right?

Margaret has got very long hair / hairs.

We had a very good weather / very good weather when we were on holidays.

Sorry I’m late. I had trouble / troubles with the car this morning.

I want something to read. I’m going to buy a / some paper.

I want to write some letters. I need a / some writing paper.

Bad news don’t / doesn’t make people happy.

I had to buy a / some bread because I wanted to make some sandwiches.

2. Complete the sentences with the correct form, singular or plural, of the given nouns. When necessary, choose word in parentheses in some of the sentences.

chair I bought some………..

furniture I bought some………..

fruit There (is, are) a lot of ……….on the table.

vegetable There (is, are) a lot of ……….on the table.

dress Mary has a lot of ……………in her closet.

grammar I know a lot of …………………….

word I’m learning a lot of new……………….

2.  Add final –s/ -es if possible.

1.  I’m learning a lot of grammar…

2.  We’re studying count and noncount noun…

3.  Olga knows several language…

4.  Olga has learned a lot of English…

5.  Sara doesn’t like to wear makeup…

6.  Colorado has high mountain…

7.  The streets are full of automobile…

8.  I have some important fact… for you.

9.  A circle… has 360 degree…

Such types of exercises help students to understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns.

The importance of teaching articles is obvious. It is necessary for teachers to be better informed how present and practice grammar and articles.

There exist different ways of presenting articles. At the beginning pupils must realize when should we use an indefinite article and when should we use a definite article? That’s why they have to remember the first rule:

Indefinite article is used for previously unknown nouns that are being introduced into a dialogue or story and definite article is used for nouns that have already been introduced (or are already known).

For example:

I saw a cat. The cat was sitting on a fence. The fence was painted brown. The cat jumped off the fence when it saw a mouse. The mouse ran into a hole when it saw the cat so the cat didn’t catch the mouse.

In this example, the nouns ‘cat’, ‘fence’, and ‘mouse’ take an indefinite article, but only when they are introduced for the first time. After they are introduced, we use the definite article in every instance. This pattern, or rule, covers a lot of basic instances of concrete nouns, especially in story telling. This rule can extend over long periods of time and interrupted dialogue so that I can ask you to buy a pen and then several hours later I can ask you if you bought the pen.

Of course, this rule cannot be taught at the single sentence level since it requires a sentence to introduce the noun and a sentence to talk about the noun that has previously been introduced.

One exercise that I find useful is to have students fill in the articles for simple stories where several characters and objects are introduced into the story in succession. Every time a new character (knight, cat, ogre, mouse) or a new object (fence, bridge, castle) is introduced into the story the indefinite article is used and thereafter the definite article is used as per the basic rule.

Another good exercise that emphasizes this use of the basic rule is to have a series of flashcards with people or animals doing something and ask the students to describe what they see:

I see a monkey. The monkey is playing the drums.

I see a cat. The cat is swimming.

The pattern can be varied to suit other language needs:

There is a cat. The cat is swimming.

Some other possible ideas for using flashcards like these are:

(a) Describing colours: I see a cat. The cat is black.

(b) Describing clothes: There is a girl and a boy. The girl is wearing a dress and the boy is wearing a shirt and jeans.

(c) Describing actions: I see a knight. The knight is fighting an ogre.

(d) Describing settings of a story: Once upon a time, there was a princess. The princess lived in a castle.

If the teacher has to teach the use of articles, then this is the place to begin. This is the basic rule for using articles. In fact, I often tell pupils that this is the only rule, but there are many exceptions. The problem is that there are so many exceptions that you could spend an inordinate amount of time going over these exceptions. In the end, pupils would not be able to internalize these rules anyways.

Another important rule is when something is unique or, in other words, there is only one of that objects. In this case, the definite article is used. The sun, the president, the queen of England, the capital city, and the moon are all examples. This is especially true for objects that are well-known by many or most people, but it is true even when the hearer may not know the object:

A: Who’s he?

B: He's the president of Korea. She's the CFO. He's the mayor.

This can be contrasted with:

A: Who's she?

B: She's a member of parliament. She's an accountant. He's an alderman.

This uniqueness can come by association:

A car crashed into a tree. The driver was seriously injured.

Once we established (introduced) the car, there could only be one driver so “driver” was unique at the time of introduction and we use the driver instead of a driver. We could have rewritten this so that driver was not unique (and the car was) when it was introduced:

A driver was seriously injured when the car he was driving crashed.

A driver can only be driving one car at a time so ‘car’ is unique in this instance once driver was introduced.

This exception applies to superlatives (which are usually unique in occupying the extreme position or quality): the best place, the worst thing, the fastest runner, the tallest mountain, the most. This can be contrasted with comparatives such as a better mouse trap where several better mouse traps are possible.

This exception also applies to ordering (ordinal numbers used as adjectives) where it is presumed that the ordering is unique: the second time, the third example, the fourth person to call. In other words, once you place an order on objects they hold a unique position in that order.

This exception applies to named things (which through naming become unique):

The Rocky Mountains. (a mountain range)

The New York Islanders. (a sports team)

The Amazon River. (a river in South America)

The Pacific Ocean (An ocean)

The Steelworkers Union (an organization)

The Great Plains (a geographic locality)

The Washington Monument (a statue)

The Number Four Bus

However, this application is imperfect as some things such as named lakes and islands take no articles (Buttle Lake, Skull Island) except in plural instances (the Great Lakes, the Galapagos islands).

This exception applies to famous people who become unique in their fame:

A: I saw Nicole Kidman yesterday.

B: Nicole Kidman, the actor? (There is only one famous Nicole Kidman)

Another way of presenting articles is by giving the rules of using them in the mother tongue. Then the pupils practice applying the rule first orally and after that in written form.

Written texts are often one of the major sources through which language learners meet new vocabulary, grammar and articles in particular, so it is only logical that they should be used extensively in classroom teaching. They have the great advantage.

As the example the teacher may use different texts. Such as:

“There is no city quite like New York. It is known as “The City That Never Sleeps” and is the biggest commercial and cultural center in the world. Manhattan – the heart of the city – is only one of the five boroughs in this city. There are thousands of things to do and places to visit for tourists. The most famous landmark must be The Statue of Liberty – a symbol of freedom.

You can relax in Central Park, which is larger than Monaco! New York really does have something for everyone. ”[11:76]