THE ARTICLE

In English there are three articles:  The definite article (the)

The indefinite article (a, an)
Zero article

A. THE DEFINITE ARTICLE “THE”. USAGE:

 As a substitute of a demonstrative adjective (It was cheap at the price)

 With nouns that refer to a particular object or person or are known to the
speaker (The flowers are very beautiful- the flowers from my garden)
 With nouns that denote unique objects like : the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the
air, the North, the South
 With nouns which denote generally known persons or objects: the President,
the Pope, the subway
 With nouns that are followed by a preposition (Paris is the capital of France)
 With nouns denoting parts of the body (She was hit in the stomach)
 With nouns which have already been mentioned (She was reading a book. The
book was really captivating)
 With adjectives in the superlative degree : the most interesting, the tallest
 With countable nouns in the singular (The door is wide opened)
 With collective nouns such as: the public, the audience
 With adjectives to denote a whole class of people: the poor, the rich, the
young
 With nouns in the singular to denote a whole class of animals, objects, things:
the lion, the buffalo, the TV, the camera
 With abstract nouns: the good, the bad, the evil
 With nouns denoting nationalities, musical instruments – the English, the
French, the piano
 With names of people in the plural to denote a whole family: the Browns, the
Smiths
 With proper names preceded by adjectives (The pretty Miss Brown has
arrived)
 With names of countries, regions, provinces in the plural, names of islands in
the plural, names of chains of mountains, deserts, oceans, seas, lakes, rivers,
capes, public institutions, ships, planes, trips, newspapers, magazines
 In expressions: by the way, to tell the time, on the one hand, in the end, at the
moment, at the same time, play the fool, on the whole.

B. THE INDEFINITE ARTICLES “A”/”AN” USAGE:

“A” is used before words beginning with a consonant or a semivowel (a book, a wall)
“AN” is used before words beginning with a vowel (an egg, an answer)
 To substitute the numeral “one” (I bought a table)
 With the indefinite pronouns “few” and “little” becoming “a few”/ “a little” to express a
positive idea (I have been able to save a little money, although I have a rather low
salary.)
 With nouns denoting a profession, a class, a religion – an engineer, a Christian
 With nouns already mentioned or implied (A man like him can do anything.)
 With nouns taken in their most general sense (A baby requires special care.)
 With nouns denoting an unknown person (A Miss Brown asked to talk to you.)
 With nouns denoting a member of a famous family (She is not a Cantacuzino.)
 With nouns denoting a person with certain characteristics (He is known as a Casanova.)
 In expressions: to be in a hurry, to take an interest, to have a chance, all of a sudden, to
have a good time, as a matter of fact.

C. ZERO ARTICLE. USAGE:

 with uncountable nouns: oil, sugar, money
 with abstract uncountable nouns: death, love, hate, life, doubt
 with plural nouns: people, apples
 with names of people accompanied by an adjective: Old Jack
 with names of countries, continents, states, counties, cities, towns, lakes, mountains,
buildings, streets, bridges, places, months, festivals, days of the week, meals of the
day, seasons, languages, means of transport, before cardinal numerals
 in expressions : day by day, in case of, to take part in, to catch pie, by sea, in silence,
to shake hands, to be in trouble, on average.
 THE NOUN

DEFINITION- part of speech that refers to a person, animal place, thing, activity, event or idea
and can be replaced by a pronoun
CLASSIFICATION-
1. According to their word formation-
a. Simple- pencil, dog
b. Derived- booklet, kindness
c. Compound- postcard, dining room
d. Nouns formed through conversion- the rich, the poor, the wounded, fall, cook
e. Abbreviations- Mr Brown
f. Contracted- gym (gymnastics), lab (laboratory)
2. According to their countability, nouns are
a. Countable- apple, room, school
b. Uncountable- noise, pride, milk, water
c. Collective- family , team, crew
3. According to their meaning, nouns are
a. Common- garden, child
b. Proper- the Danube, Mary ,France
c. Concrete- denote material objects that can be perceived by our senses- wall, pencil,
team
d. Abstract- denote things perceived only by our mind (qualities and states)- youth,
pride, health

THE NUMBER OF NOUNS

 Formation of the plural
A, Countable nouns
1. To make regular nouns plural, add -s to the end.
cat – cats

house – houses

2 If the singular noun ends in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z, add - es to the end to make it plural.

truss – trusses

bus – buses

marsh – marshes
lunch – lunches

tax – taxes

blitz – blitzes

3 In some cases, singular nouns ending in -s or -z, require that you double the -s or -z prior
to adding the -es for pluralization.

fez – fezzes

gas –gasses (note that gases is also an acceptable, and more commonly used, spelling of this
plural noun)

4 If the noun ends with - f or -fe, the f is often changed to -ve before adding the -s to form
the plural version.

wife – wives

wolf – wolves

Exceptions:

roof – roofs

belief – beliefs

chef – chefs

chief – chiefs

Both forms are possible with the following nous:

 scarf → scarfs/scarves
 hoof → hoofs/hooves

Add -s for words ending in -ff.

5 If a singular noun ends in -y and the letter before the -y is a consonant, change the ending
to -ies to make the noun plural.

city – cities

puppy – puppies

6 If the singular noun ends in -y and the letter before the -y is a vowel, simply add an -s to
make it plural.
ray – rays

boy – boys

There are two forms of the plural of the word penny:

 pennies → You refer to the single coins.

 pence →You refer to the price (how much sth. is).

7 If the singular noun ends in -o, add -es to make it plural.

potato – potatoes

tomato – tomatoes

Exceptions:

photo – photos

piano – pianos

halo – halos

BUT: volcanoes

Volcanos, both are accepted.

8 If the singular noun ends in -us, the plural ending is frequently -i.

cactus – cacti

focus – foci

9 If the singular noun ends in -is, the plural ending is -es.

analysis – analyses

ellipsis – ellipses

10 If the singular noun ends in -on, the plural ending is -a.

phenomenon – phenomena

criterion – criteria
11 Some nouns don’t change at all when they’re pluralized.

sheep – sheep

series – series

species – species

deer –deer

B. The plural of compound nouns

 Compound nouns normally form the plural by adding -s to the last word of the
compound.
a games console  three games consoles 

a bookcase  two bookcases 

an Indian take-away  two Indian take-aways 

There are a few exceptions:

 A compound noun formed from a noun and an adverb makes the first word plural.
a passer-by  several passers-by 

 Compound nouns with woman as the first word make both words plural.
a woman doctor  several women doctors 

a woman driver  most women drivers 

 A compound word which ends in -ful normally adds -s after -ful, but there is an
alternative form with the -s following the base noun.
a cupful  three cupfuls/cupsful 

a two spoonfuls/spoonsful 
spoonful 
 Some nouns referring to clothes and tools where two equal parts are joined together,
e.g. trousers, binoculars, and tongs, are treated as being plural and are followed by
a verb in the plural.!!!!!
Plural Noun Rules for Irregular Nouns

child – children

goose – geese

man – men

woman – women

tooth – teeth

foot – feet

mouse – mice

person – people

Nouns used in singular and plural

Sentence Explanation

The family is on
I see the family as a group.
holiday.

The family are

packing their I see the single members of the family packing their suitcases.
suitcases.

Team B was very

I see Team B as a group.
successful today.
 Sentence Explanation

I see the single members of Team B. Each member of the team was
Team B were very
successful. I could also say: All members of Team B were very
successful today.
successful.

There are more words which can be singular or plural nouns:

 army
 band
 choir
 class
 club
 crew
 company
 firm
 gang
 government
 orchestra
 party
 staff.

Nouns used in their plural forms

In English there are nouns that are used only in the plural.

1. Pair nouns

Noun Sentence

jeans Where are my jeans?

 Noun Sentence

glasses She has lost her glasses.

scissors These scissors don't cut well.

If you want to refer to an exact number, use a/one pair of, like in the following example.

 I have bought a pair of jeans.

 I have bought two pairs of jeans.

There are more nouns: binoculars, headphones, pyjamas, scales, shorts, tights, trousers.

2. Nouns not used in the singular (headwords)

Noun Sentence

cattle Male cattle are called bulls.

clothes He bought some new clothes yesterday.

stairs The children ran down the stairs.

wages The wages are paid on the last day of the month.

people * Three people were killed in the car crash last Friday evening.

police Look! The police are coming.

* The word people can be used in the singular with another meaning:

 They are a friendly people.
 The native peoples of Africa often have black skins.

3. Nationalities

The following nationalities (no -s) are used in the plural:

 the Dutch
 the British
 the English
 the French
 the Spanish
 the Welsh

The singular of the English would be the Englishman.