Free English Language Tutorials

Articles
How often do see or hear people use a, an, the wrongly in their speeches and writings. Today, we are going to look at Articles in detail to enable us know when, where and how to use them correctly.
ArticlesAn article is an alphabet, a group of alphabets or a word used to before a noun to show whether the noun refers to a particular or general example of something. Articles may be divided into:The indefinite Article (‘a’ and ‘an’)The definite Article (‘the’)
The Indefinite Article (‘a’ and ‘an’)‘a’ or ‘an’ are indefinite articles which means that they do not refer to any particular person or thing.
The uses of the indefinite article ‘a’:‘a’ is used before a consonant or a sounded ‘h’, before ‘u’ and other vowels having the original sound ‘u’‘a’ is correctly and logically used before day, month, week than the Latin preposition, ‘per’ which should only be used with Latin words.
Examples:per diem = a day not per dayper mensem = a month not per monthper annum = a year not per annum , etc‘a’ is used before words whose first letters have consonant sounds.
Examples: a bottle a cat a hut a house, etc‘a’ is used with singular nouns since ‘a’ means one, a bottle means one bottle. It is not used with uncountable nouns. That is why you can not say ‘a water’, ‘a oil’ or ‘a petrol’, you say ‘some water’, ‘some oil’ or ‘some petrol’.
The uses of the indefinite article ‘an’:‘an’ is used before vowels, before a silent ‘h’ and before consonants having vowel sounds at the beginning . Note that ‘an’ was used before an unaccented syllable beginning with ‘h’. Example: ‘an historical work’. But now that the ‘h’ in such words is pronounced, the distinction has become pedantic and ‘a historical work’ should be used instead.‘an’ is used before words whose first letters have vowel sounds ( ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’ or ‘u’). Examples: ‘an egg’, ‘an ant’, ‘an orange’. Like ‘a’, ‘an’ goes with singular nouns. So, ‘an egg’ means one egg, ‘an ant’ means one ant and ‘an orange’ means one orange. Words like ‘hour’, ‘honour’ and ‘honest’ begin with consonants but, they take ‘an’ in front of them. This is because, they have vowel sounds. The ‘h’ is silent. Similarly, words like ‘europe’, ‘university’ and ‘unique’ begin with vowels but, they take ‘a’ in front of them because, they have consonant sounds and their pronunciation begins with ‘j’ sound. Therefore, we have ‘a european’, ‘a university’ and ‘a unique’.
The definite article ‘the’‘The’, being a definite article, is used to refer to a particular person or thing that is already known to the speaker or the listener.
The uses of the definite article ‘the’‘The’ is used to refer to the particular noun before which it is placed:to show a particular person or thing. Examples: ‘the man’, ‘the car’, ‘the cat’, etcto show a class or kind of anything. Examples: ‘the car is so good’,to show possession. Examples: ‘the pastor’s Bible’, Akon’s house’, ‘Victor’s ball’, etcbefore a national name, but note that ‘the’ is not used before the name of a nation, if the name means the language of that nation. Examples: ‘the United Kingdom’, ‘the United States of America’, ‘the Republic of Congo’.before the names of ships. Examples: ‘the anchorage’, ‘the Delta merchants’, etcbefore the names of professions. Examples: ‘the police’, ‘the jury’, ‘the attorney’.before the names of rivers, seas, gulfs, oceans, mountain ranges or groups of Islands. Examples: ‘the river Niger’/ Benue, ‘the pacific ocean’, ‘the black ocean’.Before names of titles. Examples: ‘the obi of owa’, ‘the baale of Iju’, ‘the governor of Delta State’Before family names.Examples: ‘the Ibikunles’, ‘the Njoegbus’, ‘the Olatundes’, ‘the Ogungbes’.Before the names of some books. Examples: ‘the Holy Bible’, ‘the Qua’ran’, ’the Dictionary’.Before the names of newspapers and magazines. Examples: ‘the Guardian’, ‘the Nigerian Tribune’, the News watch Magazine’, ‘the African Concord’. Before the names of unique or striking things. Examples: ‘the sun’, ‘the moon’, ‘the sky’.Before the superlative degree of adjectives. Examples: ‘the best speaker’, ‘the greatest boxer’, ‘Tolani is the most intelligent of all’.Before an adjective used as a noun. Example: ‘blessed are the meek in spirit’.Before the description of significant names of places. Examples: ‘the United Kingdom’, ‘the Philippines’, ‘the Indians’.Before an ordinal number of a series written in letters. Examples: king Mswatty ‘the third’ of Swatziland’, ‘Pope Benedict ‘the sixteenth’ of Rome’, King Henry Ewang Henshaw ‘the third’.‘the’ is used as an adverb of degree. Examples: ‘the’ more we are together, ‘the’ happier we can be.Before the days of the month. Examples: ‘the’ 31st of June, ‘the’ 6th of May, ‘the’ 30th of November.Before proper, material and abstract nouns to make them common. Example: Mary was ‘the beauty’ of ‘the town’.Before a common noun to make it abstract in nature. Example: ‘the mother’ in her soon yielded to a sense of justice.Before names of organizations, institutions or enterprises which do not bear the owner’s names. Example: ‘the’ first city monument Bank.
Other uses of articles
(i) when separate persons or objects are joined by ‘and’, the article preceding the former person or object, should be repeated before the latter. Otherwise, they would mean the same thing or person and take the singular verb.
Examples: (a) ‘the’ Proprietor and ‘the’ Secretary sat side by side at the meeting. (b) which of the cars do you prefer? ‘the brown or ‘the’ blue?if two or more adjectives qualify a connected noun, the second article should be repeated or it may also be dropped provided the noun is put in the plural. Examples: (a) I have read ‘the’ first and ‘the’ second chapter or I have read ‘the’ first and ‘the’ chapters of that book? (b) Have you read ‘the’ third and ‘the’ fourth chapters of Second Samuel in the Bible?
Instances where articles are omitted
The definite article ‘the’, is not used before a common noun in the plural number unless we wish to particularize it. Examples: (a) flowers are always charming. (b) ‘the flowers’ in our garden were stolen last night.No article is used before such words as: cattle, company, government, man, mankind, parliament, posterity and society when they are used in the widest sense. Examples: (a) Man is mortal and not ‘the’ man is mortal. (b) always keep ‘good company’ and not a good company (c) what kind of man are you? And not what kind of a man are you? (d) Ojo does not deserve the name of gentleman and not Ojo does not deserve the name of a gentleman (e) posterity will remember Abiola and not ‘the’ posterity will remember Abiola (f) five is a better servant than master and not five is a better servant than ‘a’ master Abstract, material and proper nouns generally take no article, unless they are used as common nouns with particular significance. Examples: (a) he went into the country for ‘safety’ (b) the ‘safety’ of the country is at stake (c) the Nigeria of today is in a melting point (d) the coal of Enugu is of high qualityNo article is used before titles, when they are used in apposition before a noun. Examples: (a) Mr Gbolahan, principal of our school, is traveling abroad soon. (not ‘the ‘ principal) No article is used before subjective or objective complements of such verbs as make, elect, appoint, crown, etc. Examples: (a) He was crowned ‘king’ last month ( not ‘the’ king) (b) they elected him ‘prefect’ ( not the prefect)Few and little are practically negatives, but when they are preceded by ‘a’ , they mean ‘some’, and if preceded by ‘the’ , they mean ‘all’, though not ‘many’ or ‘much’. Examples: (a) few, a few, *and not *afew are always plural. (b) many are called but few are chosen means (practically none) (c) ‘afew’ are sure to be chosen (some) (d) I found ‘little’ milk or water in the cup (almost no milk or water) (e) I found ‘a little’ milk or water in the cup means (some milk or water)
Articles are omitted in the following idiomatic phrases:
(a) Day by day side by side face to face hand to hand Bound hand and foot part and parcel from hand to mouth hand in hand
(b) at home at fault at dawn at night at noon at sight at ease at school at hand by name by train by steamer by land by sea by air for sale for favour for fear for leave in fact in hand in bed in front of in favour of in debt in trouble in earnest in jest under trial under ground under consideration on demand on sale on earth on foot
(c) to make room to catch fire to take action to take offence to give offenceto keep house to shake hands to leave school to set sail to send wordto set foot to give battle to give way
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