Articles 冠詞 1

There are lots of rules about the use of articles. Here we’ll concentrate on 3 golden rules. Most mistakes with articles are made through breaking one of these rules.

關於冠詞的使用有很多很多的規則。這裏我們只列舉三個黃金規則。很多人用錯冠詞主要是沒有遵循其中的某一條規則。

1. When we say what people’s jobs are, we use a/an

當我們說人們的工作的時候，我們用a/an

·  She’s an architect.

·  He’s a doctor.

·  My grandfather was a teacher.

2. Singular, countable nouns always have an article –a/an or the –or another determiner (my, your, this, that etc.)

單數形式和可數的名詞總是會帶着冠詞a，an或者the，或者是另一個限定詞，如my，your，this 和that 等等。

Remember that we use the indefinite article - a/an - when we talk about something that is not definite.

請記住，當我們用不定冠詞a和an的時候，我們是在討論某些不確定的，模糊的東西。

·  I saw a good film yesterday. The listener doesn’t know which film.

·  There’s a man at the door. We don’t know who the man is.

·  Do you want a drink? It’s not a particular drink.

…and we use the definite article - the –when we talk about something more certain.

當我們用定冠詞the的時候。我們是在討論某樣特定的已經確定的東西。

·  I’m going to take the dog for a walk. The dog is a pet –it’s not just any dog.

·  Have you seen the car key? Speaker and listener know which car. It’s not just any car.

·  They live in the house opposite ours. There’s only one house opposite. It’s not any house.

3.  When we talk about things in general we usually use a plural noun or an uncountable noun with no article.

當我們談論概括性的事物，我們用名詞複數或者一個不帶冠詞的不可數名詞。

·  Birds eat worms. NOT The birds eat the worms.

·  Water flows downhill.

·  Kangaroos live in Australia.

BUT We went to the zoo and saw the kangaroos. These are particular kangaroos –not kangaroos in general.

There are many other rules about articles but remembering these 3 golden rules will reduce the number of mistakes you make.