Unidad 1: El Artculo

A) El artculo indefinido A AN

Los artculos indefinidos en ingls son A y AN y equivalen aUn, Una, Unos, Unas.

A se utiliza delante de palabras que comienzan conconsonante: A car; A bicycle

An se utiliza delante de las palabras que empiezan con vocal o H muda: An umbrella; An honest man.

A continuacin, se detallan algunos ejemplos de su uso.

El artculo indefinido se utiliza delante de sustantivos contables como ejemplos de una clase general de cosas:

-A bike is a thing people ride.

-A pan is what we use for cooking.

Antes de nombres de profesiones:

-My aunt is a doctor

Bryan is a Photographer

Para expresar precios y velocidad:

-Pears are 3 Euros a kilo

-I drive my car at a 100 kilometres an hour.

Antes de sustantivos en singular en exclamaciones comorather, quite, such:

_My sister is such a good tennis player

-She is rather a good writer

B) El articulo definitive THE

Equivale a El, La, Las, Los y se utilice delante de los nombres de ros, mares y cordilleras.
The River Thames

The Pacific Ocean

The Alps

The Atlas Mountains

C) La omision del articulo

No se utilize el articulo con sustantivos que indican una clase general de cosas, delante de nombres que
representan una calidad o cantidad de indefinida, ni delante de nombres de calles, ciudades o pases; pero hay
algunas excepciones:

-The United States

-The Netherlands

-The Dominican Republic

-Dinner is at 8 0clock

-Water is good for you

-Gold is an expensive metal

-I live in New York

Tampoco antes de los sustantivos en plural cuando se emplea de una forma definitiva:

-Children can be very noisy

-Planes make a lot of noise

1. We use the indefinite article, a/an, with count nouns when the hearer/reader
does not know exactly which one we are referring to:

Police are searching for a 14 year-old girl.

2. We also use it to show the person or thing is one of a group:

She is a pupil at London Road School.

Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since
Friday.

Jenny Brown, a pupil at London Road School, is described as 1.6 metres tall with
short blonde hair.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue
jeans and blue shoes.

Anyone who has information should contact the local police on 0800349781.

3. We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns and uncount nouns:

She was wearing blue shoes. (= plural noun)

She has short blonde hair. (= uncount noun)

Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since
Friday.

Jenny Brown, a pupil at London Road School, is described as 1.6 metres tall
with short blonde hair.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue
jeans and blue shoes.

Anyone who has information should contact the local police on 0800349781.
4. We use a/an to say what someone is or what job they do:

My brother is a doctor.
George is a student.

5. We use a/an with a singular noun to say something about all things of that
kind:

A man needs friends. (= All men need friends)

A dog likes to eat meat. (= All dogs like to eat meat)

The definite article the is the most frequent word in English.

We use the definite article in front of a noun when we believe the hearer/reader
knows exactly what we are referring to.

because there is only one:

The Pope is visiting Russia.

The moon is very bright tonight.
The Shah of Iran was deposed in 1979.

This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective:

He is the tallest boy in the class.

It is the oldest building in the town.

because there is only one in that place or in those surroundings:

We live in a small village next to the church. (the church in our village)
=

(the car that belongs to our

Dad, can I borrow the car? =
family)

When we stayed at my grandmothers house (the beach near my

we went to the beach every day. = grandmothers house)

Look at the boy in the blue shirt over there. (the boy I am pointing at)
=

because we have already mentioned it:

A woman who fell 10 metres from High Peak was lifted to safety by a
helicopter. The womanfell while climbing.
The rescue is the latest in a series of incidents on High Peak. In January last
year two men walking on the peak were killed in a fall.

We also use the definite article:

to say something about all the things referred to by a noun:

The wolf is not really a dangerous animal (= Wolves are not really dangerous
animals)
The kangaroo is found only in Australia (= Kangaroos are found only in
Australia)
The heart pumps blood around the body. (= Hearts pump blood around
bodies)
We use the definite article in this way to talk about musical instruments:

Joe plays the piano really well.(= Joe can play any piano)
She is learning the guitar.(= She is learning to play any guitar)

to refer to a system or service:

How long does it take on the train?

I heard it on the radio.
You should tell the police.

With adjectives like rich, poor, elderly, unemployed to talk about groups of
people:

Life can be very hard for the poor.

I think the rich should pay more taxes.
She works for a group to help the disabled.

The definite article with names:

We do not normally use the definite article with names:

William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

Paris is the capital of France.
Iran is in Asia.

But we do use the definite article with:

countries whose names include words like kingdom, states or republic:

the United Kingdom; the Kingdom of Nepal; the United States; the Peoples
Republic of China.

countries which have plural nouns as their names:

the Netherlands; the Philippines

geographical features, such as mountain ranges, groups of islands, rivers,

seas, oceans and canals:

the Himalayas; the Canaries; the Atlantic; the Atlantic Ocean; the Amazon;
the Panama Canal.
 newspapers:

The Times; The Washington Post

well known buildings or works of art:

the Empire State Building; the Taj Mahal; the Mona Lisa; the Sunflowers

organisations:

the United Nations; the Seamens Union

hotels, pubs and restaurants*:

the Ritz; the Ritz Hotel; the Kings Head; the Dj Vu

*Note: We do not use the definite article if the name of the hotel or
restaurant is the name of the owner, e.g.,Browns; Browns Hotel; Morels;
Morels Restaurant, etc.

families:

the Obamas; the Jacksons