Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Articles
Meet Mr. Articles!

Articles are the words a, an and the.

How do we use articles?

- use a before countable nouns and words beginning
with consonant sounds
e.g. a ball, a new computer

- use a when u sounds like ‘you’

e.g. a unit, a uniform

- use a for letters that begin with consonant sounds

e.g. a CD, a KCR train

- use an before countable nouns and word beginning

with vowel sounds
e.g. an elephant, an orange

- use an when the h sound is silent

e.g. an hour, an honest person

- use an for letters that begin with vowel sounds

e.g. an LRT train, an ATV programme
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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

You can use ‘the’ with any noun, except most proper nouns. You can say:

the boy the girls the water

‘The’ means something is special or particular.

- use the when something has already been mentioned

e.g. There’s a pen and paper on that desk.
I can see the pen, but I can’t see the paper.

- use the when there is only one of something

e.g. The moon goes around the earth.

- use the when you are pointing out a particular thing

e.g. Look! Can you see the man on the bridge?

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Fill in the gaps with a, an, the or nothing (-). Think very carefully!

1. Gramo hates ______ French. He says it’s too difficult for him.

2. Be careful! There’s ______ monster in your pond!

3. Gramo still tries to play ______ violin. He’s really bad at it.

4. Three times ______ week he has music lessons but they don’t help.

5. His sister hates ______ noise of his violin.

6. They are going to ______ France for a holiday.

7. Bryan thinks he can play ______ football. He’s wrong. He can’t!

8. Mr. Articles has invented ______ umbrella. It opens automatically when it rains.

9. Gramo wears ______ uniform at school. He doesn’t like it.

10. We are having omelettes for ______ lunch.

11. Gramo’s rabbit, Sticky, has a bath once ______ week.

12. I saw a monster at breakfast. ______ monster was eating ______ large slice of

bread. I think ______ slice of bread had jam on it. ______ jam was blue and it

looked horrible!

13. “What’s that?” “Oh, it’s ______ elephant.”

14. He sees his friends twice ______ week.

15. The bell rings three times ______ hour.

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Challenge 1
Last night, Jake and Jessie were very tired. They had been out all day with their

parents. In ______ morning, they went to ______ park after having breakfast.

They played ______ hide-and-seek first. After a while, they played on ______

swing. They had lunch at ______ Burger King. Each child had ______ burger, some

French fries and ______ soft drink.

After lunch, their parents took them to ______ cinema to watch ______ funny

movie called ______ Shrek 3. They laughed a lot during ______ movie. Although they

were full after lunch, they enjoyed ______ smell of popcorn at ______ cinema.

They went shopping with their mum after the movie. ( /13)

Challenge 2
Have you heard ______ story of ______ three little pigs? ______ first little pig built

______ house of straw. ______ second little pig built ______ house of sticks. ______

third little pig built ______ house of brick. Along came ______ ugly wolf. He wanted to

eat ______ three little pigs. ( /10)

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Challenge 3
Gramo: What are you doing?

Elmo: I’m reading ______ book.

Gramo: What’s ______ book about?

Elmo: It’s about ______ pirate. Where’s mum?

Gramo: She’s in ______ kitchen. She’s making ______ omelette.

Elmo: What’s in ______ omelette?

Gramo: Eggs, silly! And ______ some onions and potatoes. It’s a Spanish

omelette. Now what are you doing?

Elmo: Err… I think I am going to see what happens in ______ kitchen as I’ve

smelled something burning! ( /8)

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Write a sentence for each picture with the help of the given words. Don’t forget to add

‘a’ or ‘an’.

Gramo / is holding / picture / elephant /

monkey

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

Ginger / is chasing / rat

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

Gramo / is drinking / glass of milk

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

Miss Math / is explaining / sum / student

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Gramo’s monster friend Coco lives on Countable Planet.

You can count all of the things on the planet.

On my planet, you
can find buildings,
cars, boats and
trees everywhere.

Gramo’s monster friend Unun lives on Uncountable Planet.

You cannot count the things on that planet.

On my planet, you
can find grass,
paper, bread,
water and oil
everywhere.

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Help Unun and Coco to find things that belong to their planets.

sand milk crayon ink goose pencil

sugar candle water bread pancake computer

honey air knife biscuit oil horse

rice apple paper cow tea bowl

Uncountable Countable
things things

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

You can use these words to

show how many things there
You can use these words to
are. Use them with nouns you
show how much there is (of
can count.
something). Use them for
nouns you cannot count.
a an the
( for singular nouns)
some a little a bit of
a lot of not much
some a few not many
much not any the
many any
(for plural nouns)

These are tricky nouns. You think they are countable but they are
actually not.

luggage information
work music rain
weather spaghetti news
homework hair rice

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Challenge 1

1. My teacher gives us _____________ homework every day.

2. ______________ weather is fantastic here!

3. How ___________ luggage did Gramo bring?

4. There isn’t _______________ traffic in this village.

5. We will take _______ taxi to the cinema.

6. I say two people playing ___________ music on the beach.

7. Would you like _____________ spaghetti for dinner?

8. Is there_____________ cheese?

9. Could I have ________ orange juice?

10. There are ___________________ people lining in front of the cinema.

11. I need to buy __________ tickets for the concert.

12. How __________ water did the rabbit drink?

13. Would you like to try ___________ of my chocolate cakes?

14. How __________ metres of cloth do you need?

15. ______________ chill powder adds flavor to the dish.

16. There aren’t _________ stickers left in the drawer.

17. _____________ children go home by bus.

18. How __________ sugar cubes does Gramo need?

19. We do not have ___________ homework today.

20. There is __________ news today.

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Challenge 2
Fill in the blanks with much, many, a lot of, some, any, a little, or a few.

Mother: Gramo, we are running out of things in the kitchen, can you go and
buy ________________?

Gramo: Alright, mum. What do you need?

Mother: We don’t have ______ milk left. Please buy 2 cartons.

Gramo: What else?

Mother: We need __________ meat as well.

Gramo: How _____________ should I get?

Mother: Get a big chunk.

Gramo: Do we need ____________ fruits?

Mother: That’s a good idea. Get _____________ apples, ____________

mangoes and _____________ grapes from the supermarket.

Gramo: Do we have ___________ candies? I want to buy ____________ .

I love them.

Mother: No, I don’t think so. You have already eaten too
_________________ candies this morning. They are bad for your
teeth.

Gramo: Oh no.

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Grammar Rescue – Articles and Quantifiers

Challenge 2
Fill in the blanks below with some, a lot of, few, many, any, a little etc.

“We need e.g. ___some___ more milk. There isn’t ____________ left in the fridge.”

“You’re right. In fact, we’ll probably need ________________ milk this morning,

because you said you’d invited a _________________ friends around for breakfast this

morning.”

“Yes, but only a few friends from school.”

“A ___________? How _____________ exactly?”

“Well, seven, actually. That’s not ___________, isn’t it?”

“But that means I’ll have to buy ___________ sugar and biscuits as well. I haven’t

done __________ shopping this week. I’ve been rather busy and only had

_______________ time.”

“Haven’t we got ___________ biscuits in the cupboard?”

“No. There were _________ left last night but I ate them before I went to bed.”

“Don’t worry – we don’t need _________ biscuits. All my friends like fruits.”

“Just as well - I didn’t get to the bank yesterday, and I’ve got _____________ cash on

me.”

“That’s unlike you – you usually have _____________ money in your pocket.”

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