Basic English Course

Course Facilitator
Joycelyn Lim

1
Grammar
Articles

2
Objectives
 Identify countable and uncountable nouns
in the workplace.
 Categorize the countable nouns in the
workplace.
 Use articles with countable and
uncountable nouns

3
Read the Passage –
The Elephant and the Mouse
 An elephant and a mouse fell in love and decided to
get married. When the elephant told her parents,
they said, ’Don’t be silly, an elephant can’t marry a
mouse.’
 So the elephant, who was very musical, became a
pianist, and the mouse, who had a very good voice,
became a singer. They toured the world together for
many years, giving concerts and bringing pleasure
to everyone who heard them.
 Moral: There is more than one way to live in
harmony.

4
Articles
 Most nouns are countable because they refer to
people, places or things that we can count.
 When you are referring to only one person,
animal, place, or thing, you can put a or an
before the noun.
 Examples:
 A manager
 A drill
 A technician
 An office
 An hour
 An adhesive tape
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Articles
 You usually put a or an before singular nouns.
 You put an before words that beginning with vowels.
 Some words do not follow this rule. You use a (not an)
before these words that begin with ‘u’. The vowel ‘u’ in
these words sounds like the word ‘you’
 A uniform
 A union
 A unit
 A utensil
 A user

6
Articles
 You usually put ‘a’ before words beginning with
consonants
 Some words do not follow this rule. You put ‘an’ (not
‘a’) before these words that begin with ‘h’ because ‘h’ is
not pronounced in these words.
 Example:
 An hour
 An honest man
 An honour
 An heiress

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Articles
 You put ‘the’ before a count noun when there is
only one. Examples:
 The sun
 The moon
 The sky
 The entrance
 The trainer, Mr Harith Noor
 The Human Resource Department

8
Read the Passage again –
The Elephant and the Mouse
 An elephant and a mouse fell in love and
decided to get married. When the elephant told
her parents, they said, ’Don’t be silly, an
elephant can’t marry a mouse.’
 So the elephant, who was very musical, became
a pianist, and the mouse, who had a very good
voice, became a singer. They toured the world
together for many years, giving concerts and
bringing pleasure to everyone who heard them.

9
Articles
 Some nouns are called uncountable nouns because they
are words for things that you cannot count.
 For examples:
 oil
 water
 wine
 sand
 sugar
 powder
 information
 air

10
Nouns
 We can put words like ‘a piece of’ before
uncountable nouns and use them as countable
nouns. Examples:
 A piece of information
 A drop of water
 A tin of grease
 A roll of tape
 A piece of bread
 A bar of chocolate
 A jar of honey
 A grain of rice
 A pinch of salt
11
Articles
 Countable nouns can be Singular or Plural.
 When we are talking about one person, animal, thing or
place, we use singular countable noun.
 Example:
 A van
 A taxi
 A fork lift truck
 A drill
 A factory
 A flat
 A table
 An instrument
 An engineer

12
Articles
 When we are talking about two or more
people, animals, places or things, we use
plural countable noun.
 Examples:
 A pen / pens
 A drill / drills
 An engineer / engineers
 A clock / clocks
 An attachment / attachments
13
Articles
 The plural of some nouns is the same as
singular;
 Examples:
 An aircraft / aircraft

24
Articles
 Some nouns are always plural. Examples:
 goggles
 spectacles
 Jeans
 shoes
 You can put ‘a pair of’ before plural nouns like
‘goggles’, ‘spectacles’ and ‘pants’ to make them into
singular.
 A pair of goggles
 A pair of spectacles
 A pair jeans
 A pair of safety shoes

26
 Activity 1
 Individual
 15 minutes
 Read the following phrases aloud:

a manager a vacuum an oven

a bell-boy a telephone a pair of kitchen
mitts
a supervisor the leader a bath towel
a baker greets the restaurant
chemicals a pepper the waiter
shaker 27
Activity 2
 Class
 10 minutes
 Ask one classmate one item in Activity 1
the category it belongs to.
 People
 Objects
 Verbs
 Place

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Activity 2

People Objects Verbs Place

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