ESL/ESOL Grammar and Vocabulary

Question

Many students learning ESL/ESOL come from a foreign language background and grew up not focusing on using some of the English building blocks that native speakers do. Despite this, ESL/ESOL students are more than capable of overcoming any obstacle so that they can effectively express themselves in English.

One of the common struggles I have seen foreign language students struggle with is regarding articles and how to use them.

How do you know when to use "a", "an", or "the"? Is there ever a time when you don't use them?

Answer 1

When to Use "a", "an", or "the"

1. *Use "a" before a noun that starts with a consonant sound*: Examples: a book, a car, a happy day

2. *Use "an" before a noun that starts with a vowel sound*: Examples: an apple, an egg, an hour

3. *Use "the" before a specific noun*: Examples: the book on the table, the Eiffel Tower, the teacher

When Not to Use Articles

1. *Don't use articles with plural nouns*: Examples: cats, dogs, cities

2. *Don't use articles with uncountable nouns*: Examples: water, air, music

3. *Don't use articles with proper nouns*: Examples: John, London, Google

4. *Don't use articles in certain fixed expressions*: Examples: at home, in bed, on time

Exceptions and Special Cases

1. *Use "the" with superlatives*: Examples: the best, the biggest, the most beautiful

2. *Use "the" with ordinal numbers*: Examples: the first, the second, the third

3. *Use "a" or "an" with indefinite quantities*: Examples: a few, a little, an hour

Remember, practice makes perfect!

Answer 2

If you are a student coming from a Spanish-speaking background, maybe the answer to this question is easy for you. But if you are coming from a non-Romantic language background, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. then this question might be something you ask yourself every time you write a sentence.

Here is an example sentence: Yesterday, I went to store.

Something seems to be missing, right? But the question is, which article would fit best here? And how do you know?

You're correct if you thought that you should use "a" or "the" before "store". In fact, either of those words are correct to use. So why do you have to choose? Well, in English we have definite and indefinite articles. A definite article is "the" - usually when we talk about "the store" or "the cat" or "the cup", we are referencing something we have already discussed or something that is near to us. The speaker and listener are aware of exactly which store, cat, cup, etc. they are talking about.

However, when I use the article "a" or "an", I could be referring any kind of store, cat, or cup. That is why it is indefinite, we don't know which thing I am talking about exactly.

So, in our sample sentence how can we know which is correct to use? If I started a conversation with this sentence, I should use the word "a" since I haven't told the listener yet which store I went to. However, if we were discussing about the store across the street and how much we loved shopping there, then I would use "the" because we are definitely talking about this one store in particular.

English can be challenging in its own ways, but once you get these tiny building blocks set up, you'll find you're able to use it more and more freely and with a high level of confidence.

I hope this helped any ESL/ESOL/TEFL learners out there. Please feel free to respond to this chain or ask more questions!