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  • Hi and welcome to DiGiLiSh.

  • I'm your teacher Chris.

  • Today, for our first lesson, we are going to talk about articles.

  • There are three articles that we will cover for today's class,

  • and they are The, A and An.

  • But, before we begin, what is an article?

  • Well, to begin with, there are actually two types of articles that we will work with.

  • The definite article, The,

  • And the indefinite articles, A and An.

  • The definite article The is very common.

  • I'm sure you've seen it lots of times.

  • The is used when you talk about something that the person you are talking to knows about.

  • or about something that is important to what you're saying.

  • "The weather is cold" is an example of where you use it.

  • "I like the circus", is another.

  • "The cat is hungry", means that there is a cat and that it is hungry.

  • It doesn't matter if you talk about something in the singular or the plural form.

  • So for example,

  • you say both "The Child" and "The Children".

  • There is no difference.

  • Indefinite articles are used when you're just talking about something in general.

  • Or something that the other person doesn't know about.

  • "I would like a cat",

  • means you just want a cat.

  • There isn't a specific cat you have in mind.

  • "I ate a hamburger" means you ate just another hamburger.

  • If you say "I ate THE hamburger",

  • it means that the person you are telling this to should know which hamburger you're talking about.

  • If you're not sure which one to use, use A and An!

  • There are two indefinite articles.

  • A and An.

  • But how do you know which one to use?

  • The answer to that is actually pretty simple.

  • It depends on the first sound in the noun.

  • If the first sound is a consonant-sound,

  • like for example "A snake", "A tiger" or "A dog",

  • Then it's A.

  • If it's a vowel-sound, then it's An.

  • Like with "An apple", "An orange" or "An island".

  • The vowels are the easiest to keep in mind because there's only five of them.

  • There's one for each of your fingers.

  • A

  • E

  • I

  • O

  • U

  • Remember that it's the SOUND, and not the letter, that counts.

  • For example, X is a consonant.

  • But you pronounce it E X, Ex.

  • So when you say X-Ray, you say AN X-Ray,

  • And not A X-Ray.

  • This is very important.

  • Sometimes a letter can be both a vowel OR a consonant!

  • Like horse, or hour.

  • The H is silent in hour.

  • so the first sound is actually O.

  • Hour.

  • So it's An hour.

  • In horse, however, you can actually hear the consonant.

  • H.

  • Horse

  • So, obviously, you're going to go with A.

  • A Horse.

  • Let's rehearse what we've talked about today.

  • We've talked about definite, and indefinite articles.

  • Definite articles are The,

  • and they are used when you're talking about something the other person knows about.

  • For example, "The cat is hungry",

  • or, "The car is new".

  • There is a cat, or a car, that you are talking about.

  • Indefinite articles, A and An,

  • are used when you're talking about something the other person doesn't know about.

  • Or, something in general.

  • "I have a cat", or "That was an X-Ray".

  • A-nouns start with a consonant-sound,

  • for example "Tiger", "Giraffe", "Horse".

  • An-nouns start with a vowel-sound,

  • for example "Orange", "Apple" or "Hour".

  • And remember,

  • there are five vowels that you need to keep in mind.

  • They are A, E, I, O and U.

Hi and welcome to DiGiLiSh.

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