How to use 'a', 'an', and 'the' in English

English articles ("a", "an", and "the") come before nouns. They help to communicate which thing you're talking about, similar to words like "this", "my", and "all". And they're confusing to a lot of English learners.

Articles are really, really hard!

If your native language doesn't use articles, they can be really confusing.
The truth is, you might never completely master articles. Most non-native English speakers don't, even if they're quite fluent and have spoken English for a very long time.
That's mostly OK. Mistakes with articles don't usually get in the way of communication. Your listeners or readers will usually be able to figure out what you mean by guessing whether you meant "a thing" or "the thing".
So while you should try to improve your skill with articles, you shouldn't worry much about them.

Understand what "the" is for

To learn how to use articles better, it helps to understand what they're for.
We use the word "the" to communicate the idea "I think that you know which thing I'm talking about." We use "a" or "an" to express the idea "You probably don't know which thing I'm talking about."
For example, if I'm telling you what someone wore, I might say:

She wore a hat.

In this case, you would imagine this person wearing some kind of hat. But if I said:

She wore the hat.

...it would mean that you were supposed to know which hat I meant. It might be:

• the hat that I mentioned earlier in our conversation
• the hat that we were joking about last week
• the only hat that this person ever wears

If you couldn't figure out which hat I meant, you might be confused about why I used the word "the". You might ask me about it:

A: She wore the hat.
B: Which hat?
A: The one that you said looked like a mushroom.

The technical term for 'the' is "the definite article". "A" and "an" are called "indefinite articles".

How much or how many are you talking about?

The other important thing to think about is whether the thing you're talking about one thing, more than one thing, or some stuff. In grammar terms, we call these "singular", "plural", and "uncountable" nouns.
Imagine that you're talking about something that the listener doesn't know about. In this case, you're not going to use "the". So what article should you use?
If you're talking about just one thing, use "a" or "an":

I bought a shirt.

The difference between "a" and "an" is easy: use "an" if the next word starts with a vowel sound. We don't like for the "a" sound doesn't mix with the other vowel:

I saw an elephant.

Now imagine that you're talking about more than one thing. In that case, don't use "a" or "an". Either use "some" or nothing at all:

I bought some socks.

I like socks.

The difference between these two is that "some" makes the amount seem more limited.
Uncountable nouns work the same way as plural ones. Liquids and things that don't have a clear shape of their own are uncountable:

I bought some ice cream.

I like ice cream.

The children's faces were filled with happiness.

Learn all the exceptions

The explanations above explain the general "feeling" that an English speaker has when using "a", "an", "the", "some", or a simple noun. If it was just a matter of learning these simple rules, articles would be easy to master. In reality, there are lots of "special cases" that you need to learn one-by-one.
If I tried to write down rules for every special case, this article would become an entire book. You wouldn't have time to read the whole thing. Even if you did read it all, you wouldn't be able to remember all of the rules. Even if you did remember the rules, your knowledge wouldn't automatically make you speak correctly. And, of course, I would miss a lot of rules and exceptions.
Unfortunately, you have to learn the special cases on your own, one at a time, and practice them as you go through life.
Here are just a few of the kind of rules that you may discover:

• Some words that are usually uncountable, like "coffee", can also be used in a countable way:
  
  

  Can you get me a coffee?

• Use "the" in front of the names of oceans, rivers, deserts, mountain ranges, and geographical areas:
  
  

  the Atlantic Ocean

  the Sahara  

  the Rocky Mountains

  the Northeast

  the Arctic

• Don't use an article in front of the name of a city:
  
  

  Paris

  Seoul

• Don't use an article in front of the name of a country, unless the country name suggests some kind of group of states, countries, islands, etc.:
  
  

  The Phillippines

  The United Kingdom

• etc.

Instead of memorizing a lot of rules, though, it's easier to think about:

• Will the listener know which thing I'm talking about?
• Is it one thing, many things, or a "blob" of stuff?

Really get a feel for these qualities, and the rest will follow.

Exercise : Articles

In the following sentences supply the articles (a, an, or the) if they are necessary. If no article is necessary, leave the space blank.

1. Jason's father bought him _____ bicycle that he had wanted for his birthday.
2. _____ Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from _____ France to _____ United States.
3. Rita is studying _____ English and _____ math this semester.
4. _____ judge asked ____ witness to tell ____ truth.
5. Please give me ____ cup of _____ coffee with ____ cream and ____ sugar.
6. _____ big books on ____ table are for my history class.
7. No one in ____ Spanish class knew ____ correct answer to ____ Mrs. Perez's question.
8. My ____ car is four yearsold and it still runs well.a

The Uses Of The Verb "be"

The verb be has the following forms:
 

Present Simple	Affirmative	I am You are He/She/It is	We are You are They are
	Question From	Am I? Are you? Is he/she it?	Are we? Are you? Are they?
	Negative:	I am not/ I’m not You are not/ aren’t He/She/It is not/ isn’t	We are not/aren’t You are not/aren’t They are not/aren't
Past simple		I was You were He/She/It was	We were You were They were
The past              participle:		been.
Present perfect:		has/have been
Past perfect:		had been

The verb be is used in the following patterns:
1. with a noun:

    My mother is a teacher.
    Bill Clinton was the president of the US.

2. with an adjective:

    This soup is very tasty.
    The children were good.

2.1 with the -ing form to make the continuous aspect

      We were walking down the street.
      Everything was wet. It had been raining for hours.

2.2 with the -ed form to make the passive voice

      The house was built in 1890.
      The street is called Montagu Street.
      This car was made in Japan.

3. with a prepositional phrase:

    John and his wife are from Manchester.
    The flowers are on the table.

Recount Text

Recount (Laporan peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan masa lampau)

Ciri Umum

1. Tujuan Komunikatif Teks:

   Melaporkan peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan dengan tujuan memberitakan atau menghibur.

2. Struktur Teks/Generic structure

• Orientation; Pengenalan, yaitu memberikan informasi tentang siapa, di mana dan kapan;
• Events; Rekaman peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan yang terjadi, yang biasanya disampaikan dalam urutan kronologis;

Komentar pribadi dan/atau ungkapan penilaian;

• Reorientation; Pengenalan ulang yang merangkum rentetan peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan.

3. Ciri Kebahasaan:

  Menggunakan:

• nouns dan pronouns sebagai kata ganti orang, hewan atau benda yang terlibat, misalnya David, the monkey, we dsb.
• action verbs atau kata kerja tindakan, misalnya go, sleep, run dsb.
• past tense, misalnya We went to the zoo; She was happy dsb.
• conjunctions dan time connectives yang mengurutkan peristiwa, kejadian atau kegiatan, misalnya and, but, then, after that, dsb.
• adverbs dan adverb phrases untuk mengungkap tempat, waktu dan cara, misalnya yesterday, at my house, slowly dsb.
• adjectives untuk menerangkan nouns, misalnya beautiful, funny, dsb.
    
  Examples and structures of the text:

  
  

Our trip to the Blue Mountain

Orientation

On Friday we went to the Blue Mountains. We stayed at David and Della’s house. It has a big garden with lots of colourful flowers and a tennis court.

Events

On Saturday we saw the Three Sisters and went on the scenic railway. It was scary. Then, Mummy and I went shopping with Della. We went to some antique shops and I tried on some old hats.

On Sunday we went on the Scenic Skyway and it rocked. We saw cockatoos having a shower.

Reorientation

In the afternoon we went home.

 

Exampleof Recount text

Vacation to London

Mr. Richard’s family was on vacation. They are Mr. and Mrs. Richard with two sons. They went to London. They saw their travel agent and booked their tickets. They went to the British Embassy to get visas to enter Britain. They had booked fourteen days tour. This includes travel and accommodation. They also included tours around London

They boarded a large Boeing flight. The flight was nearly fourteen hours. On the plane the cabin crews were very friendly. They gave them news paper and magazine to read. They gave them food and drink. There was a film for their entertainment. They had a very pleasant flight. They slept part of the way.

On arrival at Heathrow Airport, they had to go to Customs and Immigration. The officers were pleasant. They checked the document carefully but their manners were very polite. Mr. Richard and his family collected their bags and went to London Welcome Desk. They arranged the transfer to a hotel.

The hotel was a well-known four-star hotel. The room had perfect view of the park. The room had its own bathroom and toilet. Instead of keys for the room, they inserted a key-card to open the door. On the third floor, there was a restaurant serving Asian and European food. They had variety of food.

The two week in London went by fast. At the end of the 14-day, they were quite tired but they felt very happy.

2. Between Recount and Narrative

Something which happened in the past is the main resource to compose both recount and narrative text. In writer's point of view, the thing is an experience. It can be what the writer has done, hear, read, and felt. Composing recount and narrative is retelling the experiences of the past event to be a present event.

What does recount differ from narrative?

The easiest way to catch the difference is analyzing the generic structure. Recount text presents the past experiences in order of time or place; what happened on Sunday, then on Monday, the on Tuesday. In simple way, recount describes series of events in detail. It does not expose the struggle on how to make them happen. The event happened smoothly. On the other hand, narrative introduces crises and how to solve them. Narrative text always appear as a hard potrait of participant's past experience. It reveals the conflict among the participants. Cinderella's conflicts with her step mother and sister are the example. The conflict is the most important element in a narrative text. Narrative without comflicts is not narrative any more.

3. Visiting Bali

There were so many places to see in Bali that my friend decided to join the tours to see as much as possible. My friend stayed in Kuta on arrival. He spent the first three days swimming and surfing on Kuta beach. He visited some tour agents and selected two tours. The first one was to Singaraja, the second was to Ubud.

On the day of the tour, he was ready. My friend and his group drove on through mountains. Singaraja is a city of about 90 thousands people. It is a busy but quiet town. The street are lined with trees and there are many old Dutch houses. Then they returned very late in the evening to Kuta.

The second tour to Ubud was a very different tour. It was not to see the scenery but to see the art and the craft of the island. The first stop was at Batubulan, a center of stone sculpture. There my friend watched young boys were carving away at big blocks of stone. The next stop was Celuk, a center for silversmiths and goldensmiths. After that he stopped a little while for lunch at Sukawati and on to mass. Mass is a tourist center

My friend ten-day-stay ended very quickly beside his two tour, all his day was spent on the beach. He went sailing or surfboarding every day. He was quiet satisfied.

4. My Horrible Experience

Let me remind you my experience during an earthquake last week. When the earthquake happened, I was on my car. I was driving home from my vocation to Bali.

Suddenly my car lunched to one side, to the left. I thought I got flat tire. I did not know that it was an earthquake. I knew it was an earthquake when I saw some telephone and electricity poles falling down to the ground, like matchsticks.

Then I saw a lot of rocks tumbling across the road. I was trapped by the rock. Even I could not move my car at all. There were rocks everywhere. There was nothing I could do but left the car and walked along way to my house, in the town.

When I reached my town, I was so surprised that there was almost nothing left. The earthquake made a lot of damage to my town. Although nothing was left, I thanked God that nobody was seriously injured.

    5. My Grandpa’s Funeral in Toraja

Last month my family and I went to Toraja to attend Grandpa’s funeral. It was my first time to go to such a ceremony. We gathered there with our kin in the ceremony.

Overall, the ceremony was quite elaborate. It took about a week. Several days before the ceremony was done, grandpa’s body was kept in a series of houses arranged in a circular row around an open field called tongkonan. His corpse was dressed in a fi ne wearing.

The funeral was performed in two phases. First, we slaughtered the pigs and buffaloes, and then moved the corpse to face north. In this ceremony we wore black clothes. After that, the corpse was placed in a sandal wood coffin. Then, it was brought out of the house and placed on an open platform beneath the granary. Meanwhile, my uncle, my brother, and I prepared the wooden puppet and a funeral tower called lakian. The next phase of the ceremony was held in this place. The coffin is borne from the house and placed in the lakian. During the day, there were also buffalo matches. They were great matches. In the night, we were feasting, chanting, and dancing.

On the last day, the grandpa’s coffin were lowered from the funeral tower and brought up to the mountain side family graveyard. It was followed by great shouting and excitement from the relatives and the guests. Finally, we installed the wooden puppet on a high balcony where other puppets representing the members of a whole family were already there. The funeral ceremonies made my family and me tired. However, we were grateful because it ran smoothly.

Questions

1. When did the writer attend the funeral?

2. How long did the writer and his family hold the ceremony?

3. What did they do to the corpse before the funeral was done?

4. What did they do after the corpse was placed in a sandal wood coffi n?

5. What did they do on the last day of the ceremony?

MODALS

Bentuk modals:

Modals present	Modals past
Can	Could
May	Might
Must	Had to
Will	Would
Shall	Should
Should	-

Ada sekelompok kata yang memiliki makna/arti sama dengan modal diatas:

Can/could = be able to

May/might = probable, possible, presumable, perhaps

Must = have to

Will/shall = be going to, be about to

Should = had better, ought to, be supposed to

Makna dan Arti dari Modals

A. Modal + simple form

COULD/MAY/MIGHT

Walaupun modal could digunakan dalam conditional / pengandaian, selain untuk menyatakan kemampuan, could bisa juga digunakan untuk menyatakan suatu kemungkinan. Dalam hal ini could semakna dengan may atau might; pembicara tidak yakin akan sesuatu saat dia menggunakan modal ini.

• It might/may/could rain tomorrow = it will possibly rain tomorrow / maybe it will rain tomorrow.

SHOULD

Modal ini digunakan untuk menyatakan :

1. saran/anjuran, pendapat, atau keharusan/kewajiban.

Contoh :

• Setiawan should study tonight = it is good idea if setiawan studies tonight.

• Karina should go on diet = it is suggested that Karina go on diet.

2. harapan

Contoh :

• My check should arrive next week= I hope that the check will arrive next week.

MUST

Modal ini digunakan untuk menyatakan :

1. keharusan mutlak

Dalam hal ini’must” maknanya lebih kuat ketimbang ”should”. Dengan menggunakan should, orang mempunyai pilihan: melakukan atau tidak; tapi dengan must, orang tidak punya pilihan.

Perhatikan :

• Setiawan must call his insurance today = it is necessary for Setiawan to call the insurance today.
• An automobile must have gasoline to run = it is obligatory for an automobile to have gasoline to run.

2. kesimpulan logis

Must digunakan untuk menyatakan bahwa si pembicara menganggap sesuatu itu benar adanya berdasarkan fakta yang ada tapi kebenaran ini tidak harus mutlak.

Contoh :

• Prabu’s lights are out. He must be asleep.
• The grass is wet. It must be raining.

WILL/SHALL

Lihat bahasan future pada bab Tenses.

B. Modal + perfective

Modal + perfective biasanya digunakan untuk menunjukkan waktu lampau.

       

                                        Modal + have +V3/been

Harus diingat bahwa modal selalu diikuti V1 / be (simple form/bare infinitive), jadi have tak pernah berubah menjadi has ataupun had.

Could + have V3/been

Bentuk ini digunakan untuk menyatakan sesuatu hal sebenarnya bisa terjadi di waktu lampau.

Contoh :

• He could have eaten ice cream = Dia sebenarnya bisa makan ice cream; ini berarti dia pada kenyataannya tidaklah makan ice cream (he didn’t eat ice cream).
• She could have asked her brother to lift the box = Dia sebenarnya bisa menyuruh adiknya untuk mengangkat kotak; artinya kenyataannya dia tidak menyuruh, yang dengan kata lain dia-lah sendiri yang mengangkat kotak.

Might + have V3/been

Bentuk ini digunakan untuk menyatakan suatu kemungkinan/praduga dari apa yang sudah terjadi di waktu lampau.

Contoh :

• His room was still dirty, he might have forgotten to clean it. (Karena kamarnya kotor, mungkin saja dia lupa membersihkannya-atau bisa karena penyebab lain)

Should + have V3/been

Bentuk ini digunakan untuk menyatakan sesuatu yang seharusnya sudah terjadi di waktu lampau, tapi karena satu dan lain hal, hal itu tidak terjadi.

Contoh :

• Setiawan should have gone to his office this morning. (Setiawan seharusnya sudah pergi ke kantornya tadi pagi).

Must + have V3/been

Bentuk ini digunakan untuk menyatakan suatu kesimpulan logis dari apa yang telah terjadi di waktu lampau.

Harus diingat bahwa untuk menyatakan keharusan di waktu lampau hanya digunakan “had to” atau “should + have V3/been”.

Contoh :

• The grass is wet. It must have rained last night.
• Fini failed in the test. She must not have studied.

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

Kalimat Conditional atau pengandaian memiliki tiga bentuk/tipe :

FUTURE CONDITIONAL ( TYPE I )

Pengandaian ini menyatakan sesuatu yang mungkin terjadi pada waktu mendatang ataupun sekarang jika syarat atau kondisi tertentu terpenuhi.

Rumus Conditional Type 1 :

Contoh :

If I have money, I will buy a new car.

Contoh :

If he has enough time, Randi usually walks to school.

Contoh :

If you go to the post office, please mail this letter for me.

Catatan :

Unless dapat menggantikan if … not jika menyatakan kekecualian terhadap apa yang dikatakan.

Contoh :

If you don’t take more care, you’ll have an accident.

→ Unless you take more care, you’ll have an accident.

I want you to keep working if I tell you to stop.

→ I want you to keep wotking unless I tell you to stop.

If there is not a strike, the train will be running normally.

→ Unless there is a strike, the train will be running normally.

PRESENT CONDITIONAL ( TYPE II )

Pengandaian ini menyatakan sesuatu yang bertentangan dengan apa yang ada / terjadi sekarang.

Rumus Conditional Type II

Contoh :

If I had time, I would go to the beach with you this week end.

( Saya sebenarnya tidak punya waktu sehingga saya tidak bisa pergi).

He would tell you about it if he were here.

(Dia akan mengatakan hal itu jika saja dia ada disini, sayangnya dia tidak ada disini).

CATATAN :

• Untuk If Clause Type II, kata kerja to be yang digunakan hanya were untuk semua subjek.
• Kata IF pada Conditional Type II dapat dihilangkan tanpa mengubah makna dengan menggunakan pola inversi.

Contoh :

If he were here, he would tell you about it.

• Were he here, he would tell you about it.

If I were John, I would not forgive you.

• Were I John, I would not forgive you.

Past Conditional ( Type III )

Pengandaian tipe ini menyatakan sesuatu yang bertentangan dengan apa yang telah terjadi ( lampau ).

Contoh :

If we had known you were there, we would have written you a letter.

(Kalau saja kami tahu kamu berada disana, kami sudah mengirim surat padamu. Ini berarti bahwa kami tidak mengirim surat karena kami tidak tahu kamu berada disana).

Bentuk inverse untuk pola ini adalah :

Contoh di atas bila ditulis dalam pola inverse menjadi :

Had we known that you were there, we would have written you a letter.

Exercise

Rubahlah kata kerja dalam kurung ke dalam bentuk yang benar sesuai dengan konteks pola conditional yang diberikan.

1. If I were offered the job, I _______ (take) it.

2. If they had left the house earlier, they ________ (be; not) so late getting

    to the airport that they could not check their baggage.

3. If I finish the dress before Saturday, I _______ (give) it to my sister for

    her birthday.

4. If I had seen the movie, I ______ (tell) you about it last night.

5. Had Bob not interfered in his sister's marital problems, there ________

   (be) peace between them.

6. He would give you the money if he _________ (have) it.

7. She would call you immediately if she _________ (need) help.

8. Had they arrived at the sale early, they _________ (find) a better

    selection.

9. I you have enough time, please ________ (paint) the chair before

   you leave!

10. He would understand it if you __________ (explain) it to him

   more slowly.

Soal-soal Latihan Kompetensi

Conditional

1. If I ______ the flu I would have gone with you.

   A. hadn't 

   B. didn't have 

   C. have

   D. hadn't had 

   E. wouldn.t have had

2. 'Will you come to the meeting?'

    'If you come, I ________.'

    A. come      C. do             E. too

    B. will         D. am

3. If you took the clothes to the laundry now, they ______.

   A. had washed                   D. will wash

   B. has been washed            E. would be washed

   C. will be washed

4. If he prepared his lesson, he ______ his examinations.

   A. passed            D. would have passed

   B. would pass      E. would be passed

   C. had passed

5. He ________ if I had not reminded him.

    A. may forget        C. may forgot            E. might have forgotten

    B. must forget        D. should forget

6. We ____ the work if we had been given enough time.

    A. finished               D. could have finished

    B. would finish         E. could be finished

    C. could finish

7. He didn't pass his exams. If he had studied harder, he _______.

    A. can pass                D. can passed it

    B. could pass              E. will pass it

    C. could have passed

8. If someone had taken her book, she _____ the teacher.

   A. would have told to            D. had told it

   B. would have told                E. would told it to

   C. will have told it

9. 'I didn't know that Tutui was at home.'

    '_________.'

    A. If I did, I would come and see her

    B. If I had known, I would have come and seen her

    C. If I knew, I came and saw her

    D. If I have known, I have come and seen her

    E. If I know, I'll come and see her

10. It rained very hard this morning, but mother didn't have an umbrella

     with her.

     We may conclude that ______.

     A. If she had an umbrella, she didn't get wet

     B. If she had an umbrella, she could not get wet

     C. If she has an umbrella, she will not get wet

     D. If she has an umbrella, she would not be wet

     E. If she had had an umbrella, she would not have been wet

11. I could never have finished my work if my brother _____ me.

     A. didn' help                  E. wasn't helping

     B. hasn't helped

     C. hadn't helped

     D. doesn't help

12. When the little boy saw the dog, he ran away and was bitten.

     We can conclude that _________.

     A. If he hadn't ran away, he wouldn't have been bitten

     B. If he doesn't run away, he won't be bitten

     C. If he ran away, he wouldn't be bitten

     D. If he hasn't run away, he would be bitten

     E. unless he run away, he wouldn't be bitten

13. They climbed higher so that they got a better view.

     We can also say ________.

     A. If they had not climbed higher, they would not have got a better view

     B. If they didn't climb higher, they wouldn't get a better view

     C. If they didn't climb higher, they didn't get a better view

     D. If they don't climb higher, they won't get a better view

     E. If they won't climb higher, they don't get a better view

14. 'It is good that Ann reminded me about Prabu's birthday.'

     “_______________.”

    A. I would have forgotten if she hadn't reminded me

    B. I will forget it if she doesn't remind me

    C. I might forget it if she doesn't remind me

    D. I would forget it if she didn't remind me

    E. I could not forget it if she hadn't remind me

15. 'I am sorry our football team has lost.'

     '______________.'

     A. You wouldn't, if you trained harder

     B. You won't, if you train harder

     C. You wouldn't, if you would train harder

     D. You wouldn't have, if you had trained harder

     E. You don't, if you have trained harder

16. If the mechanic had done his work properly, you _____ no problems

     with your car yesterday.

     A. would have had        C. would have           E. will have

     B. havr had                  D. had haf

17. 'If they had known that the flood was coming, they wouldn't have been

      stayed in their house.' Means ______________.

     A. They knew that the flood was coming; therefore, they stayed in

          their house

     B. They decided to stay in their house although the flood was coming

     C. They couldn't stay in their house because they knew that the flood

          was coming

     D. They didn't know that the flood was coming; therefore, they stayed

          in their house

     E. They didn't want to stay in their house because they knew that

         the flood was coming

18. Rudi would have lost his way in London if he hadn't been able to speak

     English well.

     The above sentence means '___________.'

     A. Rudy got lost because his English was poor

     B. Although Rudi's English was good, he got lost

     C. As Rudi could not communicate in English, he got lost

     D. In spite of his good English, Rudi did not get lost

     E. Rudi didn't get lost because his English was good

20. “It's beginning to rain.”

     “_______, we won't be able to finish the ball game.”

     A. If it stops

     B. Should stop

     C. Unless it stops

     D. If it didn't stop

     E. Had it not stopped