3rd Class English Articles Articles

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This lesson will help you to:

• be able to differentiate between vowels and consonants.
• be able to use the articles o. an. the correctly.  

QUICK CONCEPT REVIEW

There are three articles in the English language. They are: The first time you speak of something use A or An. The next time if you repeat that object, use The.

For example:

I have a ball. The ball is red.

Another example:

Please pass me a spoon, (any spoon) Please pass me the spoon, (the spoon that we both can see) Now, isn't that easy to understand.

Let  us learn some more things about articles.

Children, you all know that there are 26 letters in the English alphabet. The letters a, e, i, o, u are called vowels and the remaining 21 letters are called consonants.

• The article A is used before words beginning with consonant sound.
• The article An is used before words beginning with vowel sound. 
• The article An is also used before a silent h:as, He waited for an hour.     

He is an honest man;  

• Remember children, A and An are used before a singular noun. E.g. a cat. an inkpot, a chair,-an ice cream. So A and An are never used with plural or uncountable nouns i.e. (things we cannot count like water, milk, sugar, flour, meat, music). article The is used with the names of rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, newspapers, holy books, etc. The is also used before things unique of their kind Eg. The sun. The earth. The moon.
• Always remember that articles are not used with names of  people, countries, states, lakes, languages,  

Words like useful, one, European begin with a vowel but instead of the article an, we use the article a before them as they do not begin with a vowel sound. 5o we say, a useful book. a one rupee note and a European tourist  

PLAY TIME

Write 20 different nouns or adjective-noun pairs beginning with vowels and consonants on separate chits of paper. The chits are shuffled and thrown in the centre. Each player picks up a chit and says the word aloud along with the article that should go with it. Points are scored on the basis of right answers and the time taken to say the word which should not be more than 3 seconds. The words can be cock, blanket, engine, old story, haunted house, best speaker, moon, earth, duck, Bible, year, sweetest fruit, etc.

• Now let me see how much you have understood about articles.
• Where do you use the articles A and An?
• When do you use the article The? v   What number of nouns do articles a and an denote?
• Why can't we use a and an before the nouns milk, sugar, water or flour?
• Why can't you use the article the with your name?