ARTICLES

“A”, “an”, and “the” are articles. They are some of the most frequent words in English.

Articles are a type of determiner that go before a noun to show reference. That is, to say which example of the noun we are referring to.

For example:

• Did you watch the soccer match? (That match we talked about the other day).

Articles can be distinguished based on whether they express definite or indefinite reference.

2.1. Indefinite articles

“A” and “an” are named indefinite article since they confer indefinite reference. That is, we are not referring to a particular thing or person, or we do not want our listeners to know which particular thing or person we are talking about.

Remember we use “a” and “an” with singular nouns. “A” is used before a noun that starts with a consonant sound and “an” before a vowel sound. Do not forget that we are referring to sound, not the spelling.

For example:

• There is a new TV program tonight.
• I have an interview tomorrow.
• Let’s meet in an hour. (Vowel sound /aʊr/)
• I bought a useful book. (Consonant sound /ˈjusfəl/)

We use “a” and “an”:

1. To introduce or establish something for the first time.

For example:

• When I was a child, I had a dog.

2. To say what job a person does.

For example:

• My sister is a pilot.

3. To classify something or say what kind of thing it is.

For example:

• The movie was a drama.
• The robbery was a mystery.

4. To mean a particular one but we don’t say exactly who or which.

For example:

• A man called you, but he didn’t leave a message.

5. In rates and some expressions of frequency.

For example:

• I take English class three times a week.

6. In singular descriptions.

For example:

• My son has a small nose and a beautiful smile.

7. In exclamations with “What”.

For example:

• What a pity!

2.2 Definite article

“The” since is named definite article since it confers definite reference on noun phrases. That is, we are referring to a particular thing or person.

“The” can used before singular or plural nouns.

For example:

• How much is the blue coat?
• How much are the black shoes?

We use the definite article “the”:

1. To refer to something or someone that has already been introduced.

For example:

• When I was a child, I had a dog. The dog was a Beagle.

2. When it is clear which one, we mean. Both, the speaker, and the listener know.

For example:

3. It is cold. Please, close the window. (You can see which one)
4. When there is only one of the things we are referring to.

For example:

• The sun is a star.

5. With musical instruments.

For example:

• My daughter plays the piano.

6. With superlatives.

For example:

• It is the biggest star in our Solar System.

7. With seas, rivers, deserts.

For example:

• The Atlantic, the Nile, the Sahara.

8. Mountains and island groups.

For example:

• The Alps, the Himalayas, the Bahamas.

9. Names with Republic, Kingdom, etc.

For example:

• The Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States.

10. Most names of buildings.

For example:

• The Hilton Hotel, the Rockefeller Center, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum.

11. Some common expressions.

For example:

• The same, the country, at the top, at the bottom, at the front, at the back, in the middle.

2.3 No article

In English we sometimes don’t use an article. The following are some examples.

We do not use an article:

1. To express a general meaning.

For example:

• Dogs make wonderful pets.
• I really enjoy movies.

2. To refer to people.

For example:

• Dr. Torres, General Smith, Prince Charles.

3. To name languages.

For example:

• Ana speaks French fluently.
• Sorry, I don’t speak German.

4. With most places for example, continents, countries, states, lakes, streets.

For example:

• Europe, Brazil, Mount Everest, Wall Street, Michigan Avenue, Times Square.

5. With meals.

For example:

• I always have breakfast at home.
• We had dinner at an Italian restaurant last night.​​​​​​​

6. With days, years.

For example:

• On Monday, in 1998.

Read the text below and choose the correct word for each space. For each statement, mark the correct letter: a, b, c, or d.

DO PEOPLE REALLY CHANGE?

by Jessica McBirney. 2020.

You might have heard someone say that a new pair of jeans or a new song changed their life. And maybe your (1) _____ have changed: you used to hate ketchup, but now you like it. No one doubts that we change as we grow older.

But do we change in (2) _____ ways? Can we really change who we are? People used to believe we stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, but researchers are increasingly finding that we can and do change in big ways.

Do personalities really change?

Psychologists are people (3) _____ study the human mind, and they have identified five traits that help us understand someone’s personality. Because these traits are so important for understanding personality, they have been called the “Big Five.”

These traits are:

1. Openness to experience: How open are you to trying new things?

2. Conscientiousness: How responsible are you?

3. Extroversion: How friendly, outgoing, and enthusiastic are you?

4. Agreeableness: How caring, trusting, and generous are you?

5. Emotional stability: How calm are you, especially when problems (4) _____?

Everyone has different levels of the big five traits. For example, Harry Potter has high levels of openness to experience, while Hermione Granger would score high in conscientiousness.

Scientists used to think that each person’s “Big Five” stayed the same their whole life, but newer research suggests that the traits (5) _____ change. People who took a personality test as teenagers scored very differently when they took the same test 50 years later. Three traits usually changed more emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. In fact, most adults were more emotionally stable, more conscientious, and more agreeable than when they were younger.

Researchers considered this a sign that we mature over time, (6) _____ learning to get along better with others.

(7) _____  people change over time, the relationship between traits often remains similar. For example, someone who was very open to new experiences but who was not agreeable as a teenager was likely still more open to new things than agreeable as an adult. Scores changed, and sometimes scores changed a lot, but they didn’t change (8) _____.

The big (9) _____ from this new research is that our personalities do transform over time. As adults, we won’t be the same as we were as teens, and our personalities will continue to change throughout our entire lives. Still, these changes won’t be arbitrary. Personality changes often happen in expected ways, with most people becoming emotionally (10) _____ and socially mature.

Berry, R. (2021). Case Study 1: The Articles. In Doing English Grammar: Theory, Description and Practice (Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 147-167). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108325745.009

Cambridge University Press. (2005). Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Second Edition.

Eastwood, J. (2019). Oxford Practice Grammar. Intermediate. Oxford University Press.

Swan, M & Walter, C. (2016). Oxford English Grammar Course. Intermediate. Oxford University Press.

Practice exercise written by Xóchitl Adriana Hernández Martínez_FES Acatlán. UNAM

Audio version performed by Kimberly_Voicemaker_Text to Speech Converter_ Xóchitl Adriana Hernández Martínez 2022

Practice exercises written by Xóchitl Adriana Hernández Martínez_FES Acatlán.

McBirney, J. 2020. Text retrieved and adapted from_ https://www.commonlit.org/es/texts/do-people-really-change/ Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Practice exercise written by_Xóchitl Adriana Hernández Martínez

Free stock photos_ https://www.pexels.com/es-es/foto/grupo-de-personas-sentadas-dentro-de-la-habitacion-2422294/ photo by Jopwell.

Audio version performed by Kimberly_Voicemaker_Text to Speech Converter_ Xóchitl Adriana Hernández Martínez 2022