ARTICLES

Systems in English Grammar: Chapter 10, page 213

Article Number Accountability Examples

A singular count a dog, an honor, a man, an idea
plural count Magazines, whales, sheep, stories
0
singular noncount Coffee, gold, life, wisdom, power
singular count The pen, the number, the planet
The plural count The cats, the trees, the women
singular noncount The air, the wine, the cement, the furniture

Generic nouns:

Definition
a. A musk ox survives well on the tundra
b. Musk oxen survive well on the tundra
c. The musk ox survives well on the tundra
Agent of change
a. A computer is changing the world (“a” may not occur in the circumstance)
b. Computers are changing the world
c. The computer is changing the world
Generalized instance
a. Every family should own a car
b. All families should own cars
c. Every family should own the car (“the” may not occur in the circumstance)

Subsequent mention:

a. Uncle Jim bought a Mercedes but the car had an oil leak
b. First, mix butter, sugar and an egg and then add flour to the mixture

Ranking adjectives

Superlative adj:
a. Greenland is the largest island in the world
b. Paris is the most beautiful city in Europe
c. The lowest prime number is 1

Sequence adj:
a. The Suez Canal was the first modern man-made shipping lane
b. Aluminum is number 13 on the periodic table. The next element is silicon
 c. The final stage of a small star is called a white dwarf

Unique adj:
a. The people of Serbia speak the same language as the peopleof Croatia
b. The only survivor of the Seven Wonders is the Egyptian pyramids
c. The earth is the one planet in the solar system that sustains life

Shared knowledge:

- Universal shared knowledge: the universe, the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, the ground

- Regional/local shared knowledge: the city, the river, the beach, the mountains, the capital, the
desert, the lake, the park, the post office, the university, the airport

- Immediate shared knowledge:

a. in a room: the ceiling, the floor, the door, the window, the light switch, the telephone
b. in a car: the heater, the headlights, the radio, the radiator, the water pump, the muffler
c. a camera: the lens, the shutter, the flash

Generic THE:

- To identify a class, tends to appear in scholarly works and literature

- An invention: the clock, the computer, the particle acclelerator
- A plant: the maple tree, the prickly pear cacus, the royal palm
- An animal: the lion
- Body part: the stomach
- Infectious agent: the AIDS virus

Eg:
a. The elephant eats leaves and tree bark
b. The telephone affects the way we live

Things to consider:
a. class/identification
b. countability
c. number (singular/plural)
d. initial sound (vowel or consonant)
e. possible form
Articles with proper nouns:

CATEGORY NO ARTICLE WITH THE

Political entities Names Titles
Continents Africa The continent of South America
Countries Somalia The People’s Republic of China
States Idaho The state of California
Cities Taipei The City of Paris
Departments Chemistry The Department of Applied Lings
Officials President Clinton The President of the US
Geographical features Singular Plural
Islands Wake Island The Aleutian Islands
Mountains Mt. Fuji The Andes
Lakes Lake Titicaca The Great Lakes

Other geographical features

Oceans ____ The Arctic Ocean
Seas ____ The Black Sea
Rivers ____ The Mississippi River
Canals ____ The Panama Canal
Deserts ____ The Kalahari Desert
Forests Sherwood Forest The Black Forest
Valleys Desolation Valley The Shenandoah Valley
Astronomical features Distant Local
Galaxies Andromeda The Milky Way
Stars Sirius The North Star, the Sun
Planets Saturn The Earth
Moons Ganymede The Moon
Comets Halley’s Comet ____
Cultural Features Without of With of
Holidays Christmas The Fourth of July
Schools Harvard University The University of Hawaii
Streets Market Street The Avenue of America

Language People
Ethnicity Italian The Italians

Other cultural features No generalization No generalization

Wars World War II The Boer War, the 2nd World War
Parks Central Park __
Museums __ The British Museum
Businesses Hewlitt-Packard The Xerox Corporatioin
Buildings Carnegie Hall The World Trade Center
The Grammar Book: Chapter 15, page 271

a/an: to classify
A thermometer is an instrument that measures temperature
The: to identify
The water in this glass is dirty