In a series of sharing useful English Grammar notes, today I am sharing Articles. Last week I shared Adverbs.
2. The Case of so , as , too :
Types of Articles:
1. Definite (the)
2. Indefinite (a/an)
Examples:
#1. there was a king in the forest and the king was brave.
{ here 'a' used before king ( which is not known and does not described before,it is also countable noun,so there we use 'a'.
#2. She is an intelligent girl.
{ a indefinite article is used before the adjective of singular noun }
#3. she gave me an* information .
{ Article is not used before information because information is not a singular countable noun }
so the correct sentence will be
Correct Sentence : She gave me information
Where to use 'a' and 'an'
'a' is used before singular countable noun started with a consonant alphabet or which are sound consonant.
Ex: chair, BA etc
'an' is used before the singular countable noun which are started countable noun which are started with vowels or give sound of vowels.
Ex : Heir,Apple etc.
Use of indefinite article
1. With Proper Noun :
Example: This book is written by a Chetan .
This book is written by Chetan .
{ Difference between above two sentence is that in the 1st sentence we are talking about 'Chetan' who is not a particular and in the next sentence 'Chetan' is described as famous or a particular special person.}
Example : 1. It is too heavy a parcel for me to carry.
2. She is as beautiful a girl as you are ever likely to me.
3. A mid wave of shouting was flowing in the party.
'THE'
Examples:
#1. You are the man who helped me.
#2. These are the girls whom are I have invited.
#3. The water of this well is polluted.
==>> Here 'the' is used before the noun to make the noun specific.
==>>'The' article is used before the singular countable noun , uncountable noun.
==>>'The' article is used with the country names if it's last letter of name include 's'.
==>>'The' is used before the countries which are stated by using 'united' , 'Republic'.
Example: United states of America ,Republic of China.
4. Incorrect statement : The director and producer of the film were* present in the function.
Correct Statement: The director and producer of the film was present in function.
Note: Here 'the' is used with director only and the producer is separated by using 'and' , here the sentence state that producer and director is the same person. so the verb should be singular so here use was instead of 'were'.
Omission of Article
#1. He goes to school daily.
#2. He is standing near by the school.
==>> 'The' article is used before noun when we have need to show something specific.It is not as before the noun representing general act.
#3. He went to church to offer prayers. [general act]
#4. He went to the church to meet his friends.
Words with which 'the' is not used in general cases:
- Church for prayers
- Temple for prayers
- Collage as student
- School to study
- Court
- University
- Bed to sleep
- Market
- Hospital as a Patient
- Jail as a prisoner
Use of ' little ' , 'a little' , 'the little'
=> little means negligible
=>A little means little
=> The little means sufficient
Rule- All of these are used with uncountable noun.
Examples:
#1. He did not attempt any question in the exam, as he had little knowledge of computer.
#2. He attempted two question in the exam as he had a little knowledge of computer
#3. The little knowledge of computer that he possessed was sufficient to crack the exam.
Use of Few , A Few , The Few
It is used before the uncountable nouns.
The use age was same as of (little, a little, the little)
Examples
#1. In an hours* time ,he reached Mumbai.
#2. Music is a science but singing is art* said the music teacher.
#3. Thanks to an insight and persistence of the local doctors , thousand of victims were able to resume a normal life.
#4. There are a hundred of partially built houses in the town.
#5. I don't like that kind of a man who does nothing but finds faults in others.
#6. He thinks about himself to be a linguistic but in reality he does'nt know even ABC of linguistics.
Note:- 'a' is not used before the noun if it followed by 'of'
- 'the' article is used in the case of 'noun of noun'.
- plenty of
- bind of
- sort of
- type of
