Countable nouns with a/an and some:

Countable nouns with a/an and some:

Nouns can be countable or uncountable:

A-Countable nouns are for example:

A dog/an umbrella/a job/a suggestion/a girl

Countable nouns are things we can count. We can make them plural:

Two dogs/some girls/six jobs

A-Before singular countable nouns you can use A/An:

Do you need an umbrella?

You cannot use singular countable nouns alone:

1-I am looking for a job. Not job.

2-I have got a headache. Not headache.

We  often use a or an + noun when we say what something/ someone is, or what something or someone is like:

A dog is an animal.

Helen is a very nice person.

Aly has a big nose.

This is a very beautiful house.

What a nice dress!

Remember to use a or an for jobs:

Mariam’s mother is a doctor.

I wouldn’t like to be an English teacher.

We use plural countable nouns alone. Not with some:

1-    What awful shoes!

2-    Dogs are animals.

3-    Ann has blue eyes.

4-    Are most of your friends students.

   D-We also use some with plural countable nouns:

Some = a number of / a few of /a pair of. But we don’t know exactly how many:

I have seen some good movies lately.

Some friends of mine are coming to stay for the weekend.

I need some new sunglasses. =a new pair of sunglasses

Don’t use some when you are talking about things in general:

I love bananas. Not some bananas.

I am a writer. I write books. Not some books.

E-You have to use some when you

mean some:

Some children learn very quickly. Not All children.

Exercises:

Find the mistake in each of the following sentences, then write them correctly:

1-    Stella looks after patients in hospital. She is nurse.

2-    Beethoven was composer.

3-    When I was a child, I used to be a very shy.

4-    All birds, for example the penguin, cannot fly.

5-    I have seen good films recently.

6-    I know a lot of people. Most of them are some students.

7-    I have been walking for three hours. I have got a sore feet.

8-    I don’t feel very well this morning. I have got sore throat.

A/ An/ The

I had a sandwich and an apple for lunch.

The sandwich wasn’t very good but the apple was nice.

I say ‘a sandwich’, ‘an apple’ because this is the first time I talk about them.

I say ‘the sandwich’, ‘the apple’ as you know which

sandwich and which apple I mean.

Compare A and an:

[A]

A pen /a man /a uniform/ a hall/ a usual case/ a hotel/ a European/a union/

 a university/

[An]

An orange/ an x-ray/ an heir/ an underground train/ an umbrella/

An honour/ an unusual case/an honest woman/ an hour

We use the when we are thinking of one particular thing:

1-    Did you get the job you applied for?

2-    I sat down near the chair nearest the door.

We use the when it is clear in the situation which thing or person we mean. For example, in a room we  talk about the light/ the floor/ the ceiling/

 the door/the carpet etc:

1-    Can you turn off the light?

2-    I took a taxi to the station?

We say [go to] the bank, the post office/ the doctor/ the dentist:

Compare:

1-I hate going to the dentist.

2-My brother is a dentist.

3-She works in the city center.

4-He is in the army.

We say ‘once a week/ three times a day/ $1.20 a kilo, 20 kilometers an hour,

 a million, a score, half a dozen’.

1-How often do you go to the cinema?

2-I work eight hours a day.

THE:

We use the when there is only one of something:

The longest river/ the world/ the sun/ the moon/ the earth/ the end of this month/

The capital of France/the sky/ the sea/ the ground/ the country/ the environment

Note that we say space without the when we mean space in the universe:

1-    There are millions of stars in space.

2-    I tried to park my car but the space was too small.

We use the before same:

1-    Your shirt is the same colour as mine.

We say: go to the cinema, the theatre. We say the radio but television

Without the.

 We don’t use the with the names of meals [breakfast/ lunch/ dinner:

1-I often go to the cinema.

2-I listen to the radio.

3-I watch television.

4-Can you turn off the television?

5-I am going to buy a new radio set.

6-There isn’t a cinema in this town.

7-What time is dinner?

We don’t use the before noun + number:

1-    Our train leaves from platform 5.

1-    Room 132.

2-    Page 24.

3-    Section A.

School/The school:

Hagar is eleven years old.

Every day she goes to school.

She is at school now.

School begins at 8 and finishes at 2.

Hagar goes to school as a pupil. We are thinking of school as a general idea.

Today Hagar’s mother wants to speak to her daughter’s teacher, so she has gone to school. She is at the school now.

Hagar’s mother is not a pupil. She goes to a particular school.

We use prison, hospital, university, and church in a similar way. With most other places, you need the. The cinema, the bank, the station.

Compare:

1-    It’s time to go to bed.

2-    I sat down on the bed.

3-    She didn’t go to work.

4-    Let’s go home.

1-    He is at home.

2-    Keith is a seaman. He spends most of his life at sea.

3-    I‘d like to live near the sea.

4-    It can be dangerous to swim in the sea.

We don’t use ‘the’:

1-    We don’t use the when we are talking about things or people in general;

In general without the but particular people or things with the:

1-    I am afraid of dogs.

2-    Doctors are paid more than teachers.

3-    Do you collect stamps?

4-    Crime is a problem.

5-    Life has changed.

6-    I like French cheese.

7-    My favourite sport is football.

8-    My favorite subject is English.

9-    Most people like her.

10-Children learn a lot from playing.

11-I listen to music.

12-All cars have wheels.

13-Sugar is not very good for you.

14-Do English people work hard?

15-I like working with people.

16-I like working with people who are lively.

17-I like coffee.

18-I like strong coffee.

1-    We took the children to the zoo.

1-    The film wasn’t very good but I liked the music.

2-    All the cars in this car park belong to people who work here.

3-    Can you pass the sugar, please?

4-    Do the English people you know work hard?

5-    I like the people I work with.

6-    Did you like the coffee we had after dinner last night?

7-    The giraffe is the tallest of all animals.

8-    The bicycle is a good means of transport.

9-    When was the telephone invented?

10-The dollar is the currency of the United States.

We use the for musical instruments:

1-    I play the guitar.

2-    The piano is my favorite instrument.

3-    I’d like to have a guitar.

4-    We saw a giraffe at the zoo.

Man = human beings in general without ‘the’.

The + adjective [without a noun] to talk about groups of people, especially:

The rich/ the poor/ the young/ the old/ the brave/ the elderly/the unemployed/

The homeless/ the sick/ the disabled/ the injured/ the dead/

The young = young people.

The rich = rich people.

The + nationality:

The French are famous for their food.

The Chinese invented printing.

With other nationalities, the plural noun ends in ‘s’:

The Italians/ The Mexicans/ The Scots/ The Turks/ The Canadians/

The Russians/ The Germans/ The Brazilians……

We don’t use the with:

Continents:

Africa/ Europe/ South America

Countries:

France/ Japan

States, Regions:

Texas/ Cornwall/ Tuscany/ Central Europe

Islands:

Corsica/ Sicily/ Bermuda

Cities, towns, Capitals:

London/ Madrid/ New York

Mountains:

Everest/ Etna/ Kilimanjaro

We use the in names with ‘Republic’/ ‘Kingdom’/ ‘State’ etc:

The United Kingdom/ The United States of America/ The USA/

The Dominican Republic…..

When we use Mr/Mrs/Captain/Doctor/President/Uncle/Aunt/

Saint/Princess/

Professor/  We don’t use ‘The’.

Uncle Robert/ MR Abu El Magd

1-    We called the doctor.

2-    We called Doctor Johnson.

We use Mount and lake in the same way without ‘the’:

1-    We live near the lake.

2-    We live near lake Constance.

We use ‘the’ with the names of oceans, seas, rivers and canals:

The Atlantic Ocean/ The Indian Ocean/ The River

Amazon/The River Thames/

The Nile/ The Red Sea/ The Suez Canal/ The Nile

We use ‘the’ with plural names of people and places:

People:

The tailors

Countries:

The Netherlands/ The Philippines

Group of Islands:

The Canaries/ The Bahamas

Mount Ranges:

The Rocky Mountains/ The Rockies/ The Andes/ The Alps

Note:

1-    The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc.

2-    The North of France

3-    Northern France

4-    The South East of Spain

5-    South-Eastern Spain

6-    Sweden is in Northern Europe.

7-    Spain is in the South.

1-    The Middle East

2-    The Far East

3-    North America

4-    West Africa

5-    South-East Spain

We don’t use ‘the’ with names of most streets/ roads/ squares/ parks etc.:

Union Street/ Blackrock Road/ Fifth Avenue/ Broadway/ Piccadilly Circus/

Times Square/ Waterloo Bridge

Many names especially names of important buildings and institutions are two words. The first word is usually the name of a person or a place we don’t usually use the:

Kennedy Airport

Cambridge University

Victoria Station

Westminster Abbey

Edinburgh Castle

London Zoo

Canterbury Cathedral

But we say the White House, the Royal Palace because white and royal are not names like Kennedy and Cambridge. This is only a general rule and there are exceptions.

Most other names of places, buildings etc. have names with the:

The Hilton Hotel

The National Theatre

The Sahara Desert

The Atlantic Ocean

The Station Hotel

The Bombay restaurant

The Red Lion Pub

The palace Theatre

The Odeon Cinema

The British Museum

The Tate Gallery

The Empire State Building

The Festival Hall

The Washington Post

The Financial Times

The European Union

The BBC = The British Broadcasting Corporation

Sometimes we leave out the noun:

The Hilton

The Sahara

Sometimes the name is only the + noun:

The Vatican

The Sun [British newspaper]

Names with….of…usually have the:

The bank of England

The houses of Parliament

The Gulf of Mexico

The University of London

The Tower of London

The Great Wall of China

 The Museum of Modern Art

The Tropic of Capricorn

London University

Many shops, restaurants, hotels, banks etc. are named after the people who started them. These names end in –‘s or –s. We don’t use the with these names:

McDonalds

Harrods

Lloyds Bank

Churches are often named after saints:

St John’s Church

St Paul’s Cathedral

Names of companies, airlines etc. are usually without ‘the’:

Fiat

Sony

Kodak

British Airways

IBM

These words are plural, so they take a plural verb:

1-    My trousers are too long.

2-    Those are nice jeans.

3-    I need some new glasses.

We can use a pair of:

1-    That’s a nice pair of jeans.

2-    I need a new pair of glasses.

Some nouns end in –ics but are not usually plural:

Gymnastics is my favorite sport.

Mathematics or maths

 Physics

Electronics

Economics

Politics

What is the news?

Some words ending in –s can be singular or plural:

A means of transport

Many means of transport

A television series

Two television series

A species of bird

300 species of bird

Some singular nouns are often used with a plural verb:

The government want to increase taxes.

The staff are not happy with their new working conditions.

Scotland are playing France next week.

Shell have increased the price of petrol.

A singular verb is also possible

We always use a plural verb with the police:

The police have arrested Aly.

The police are well-paid.

We don’t use the plural of person. We use people:

He is a nice person. They are nice people.

We think a sum of money, a period of time, a distance etc. as one thing. So we use a singular verb:

7 miles is a long way.

5 years is a long time to be without a job.

40 thousand pounds was stolen.

Noun + noun

We use two nouns to mean on thing, person, idea:

A tennis ball

A bank manager

A road accident

Income tax

The city center

The sea temperature

A London doctor

Garden vegetables

A vegetable garden

The first word ends in ‘ing’

A washing machine

A frying pan

A swimming pool

The dining room

Sometimes there are more than two nouns:

Hotel reception desk

World swimming championships

Table tennis table

Sometimes we write nouns as one word:

A headache

Toothpaste

A weekend

There are no clear rules for this. If you are not sure, write two words

You can often use a hyphen between the two words but this is not necessary:

A dining-room

The city center

Note the difference:

A wine glass = empty

A glass of wine = A glass with wine in it.

A shopping bag = empty

      A bag of shopping = a bag full of shopping

When we use noun + noun, the first noun is like an adjective. It is singular but the meaning is plural:

A bookshop

An apple tree

In the same way:

A three-hour journey

A ten-pound note

A four-week English course

Two 12-year-old girls

A three-page letter

We normally – ‘s for people or animals:

The girl’s name

A woman’s hat

The horse’s tail

The manager’s office… Not the office of the manager

Sarah’s eyes….Not the eyes of Sarah

This isn’t my book. It’s my brother’s

Note:

What is the name of the man who lent us the money?

The man who lent us the money is too long to be followed by-’s

Note:

A woman’s hat = a hat for a woman

A boy’s name = a name for a boy

A bird’s egg = an egg laid by a bird

For things and ideas we use ‘of’;

The door of the garage…Not the garage’s door

The name of the book

The owner of the restaurant

Sometimes we use Noun + Noun

The garage door

The restaurant owner

We use of with the beginning/ end/ top/ bottom/ front/ back/ middle/ side:

The back of the car…Not the car back

We use -’s or of …. For an organization;

The government’s decision   or the decision of the government

The company’s success         or the success of the company

It is also possible to use –‘s for

places:

The city’s new theatre

The world’s population

Italy’s largest city

Note:

My sister’s room

My sisters’ room

The men’s changing room

Jack and Jill’s wedding

Mr and Mrs Carter’s house

Yesterday’s newspaper

Next week’s meeting

Tomorrow’s meeting

Today’s meeting

A week’s holiday

I have got three weeks’ holiday

It was a three week holiday

Ten minutes’ walk

A ten-minute walk

Exercises:

Find the mistake in each of the following sentences, then write them correctly:

1-    Bacterium are the smallest living thing.

2-    The girl book is on the table.

3-    The girls’s books are on the table.

4-    She has a five-years-old son.

5-    It was a two-hours test.

6-    I bought some furnitures.

7-    Who invented a telephone?

8-    Sun is bright today.

9-    The gold is metal.

10-I have been able to save a few money this month.

11-Many people are multilingual, but not many people speak more than ten languages.

12-All of students must have an I.D. card.

13-An accident road can be caused by bad driving.

14-Young have the future in their hands.

15-There are millions of stars in the space.

16-The kindness is a virtue.

EXERCISE with answers - THE ARTICLES

Fill each blank with ‘a', ‘an', ‘the' or leave it blank.

• 1. Whatever you put out into ……universe will be reflected back to you.

the answer

whatever you put out into the  universe will be reflected back to you.

• 2. There is _____ box of chocolate on _____ table.

the answer

There is a box of chocolate on the table.

• 3. Do you need _____ degree in Economics or _____ degree in finance to be a better manager?

the answer

Do you need a degree in Economics or a degree in finance to be a better manager?

• 4. When we arrived, she went straight to _____ kitchen and started to prepare _____ meal for us.

the answer

When we arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and started to prepare a meal for us.

• 5. He has _____ cut on his leg and _____ bruise on _____ chin.

the answer

He has a cut on his leg and a bruise on the chin.

• 6. _____ Mt. Everest is _____ highest mountain in _____ world.

the answer

Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

• 7. Switch off _____ air-conditioner please. I have _____ cold.

the answer

Switch off the air-conditioner please. I have a cold.

• 8. We reached _____ top of _____ hill during _____ afternoon.

the answer

We reached the top of a hill during the afternoon.

• 9. Do you like _____ weather here? Isn't it too hot during _____ day but it is very cold at _____ night?

the answer

Do you like the weather here? Isn't it too hot during the day but it is very cold at night?

• 10. _____ attempt has been made to collect _____ funds to start _____ public library in _____ town where I live.

the answer

An attempt has been made to collect funds to start a public library in the town where I live.