Day 13: Articles

Before today's class, take a moment to complete some of the quizzes on Writer's Help. Use this as a pretest to see what you know before reviewing the material. Then, after class, take the tests again to see you improve.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3


Articles review: a, an, the



Errors in article use are local (not serious) errors and usually do not have a high impact on the message you are sending. However, frequent errors are distracting, and it can be a difficult aspect for non-native speakers to master. Rules for articles are complex. We will cover enough, I hope, to help you use the articles correctly in most cases.

 Image from Writer's Help is published and maintained by Bedford/St. Martin's

 Discussion:
  1. What is an article?
  2. How serious are article errors in your writing? speaking?
  3. How are they used in your native language?
Image from Writer's Help is published and maintained by Bedford/St. Martin's

 Look at the sample sentences below (some adapted from OWL Purdue's page on articles). What do the articles "tell" you about the noun: How many? Is it specific?

  • My son really wants a puppy for Christmas.
  • She gave the teacher an apple. 
  • She gave the student a cookie.
  • When I was at the zoo, I saw an elephant.
  • We adopted the puppy from a rescue center and are giving him to Sufijan for Christmas.
  • I was happy to see the policeman who saved my cat.
  • I saw the panda at the zoo.
  • I need a water.
  • The water is cold.
Let's look at some guidelines and samples.