Name: Study English - Series 1, Episode 13: Under the sea
Uploaded: 2018-06-24T22:55:10.000Z
Duration: 10 min 1 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello. Welcome to Study English, IELTS preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

We're going to look at articles today - indefinite articles 'a' and 'an', and the definite article,

But first, let's meet an oceanographer. She's talking about using underwater devices to

See if you can hear her using articles while she talks about monsoons.

The monsoon gets a lot of its energy from the equatorial and sub-tropical Indian Oceans.

Dr Susan Wijffels, an oceanographer from Australia's CSIRO, is hoping that by measuring the state

of the Indian Ocean in those areas, scientists will be able to learn something about monsoon

Predicting the monsoon is a very difficult thing and yet it impacts on millions and millions

of people, and so we think that, if we can predict the monsoon usefully, we can make

We know from El Nino that it's a fully global system, so you just can't study one small

part of the ocean and solve these problems. You really need a global integrated observing

system, and the Argo program is the first real big ocean attempt to do that, and it's

the float technology that's allowed us to even think about doing this.

Using articles before nouns is one of the most difficult things in learning English.

You can choose between indefinite articles 'a' and 'an', the definite article 'the',

Let's start with the indefinite articles 'a' and 'an'.

The rule is that 'a' is used before words starting with a consonant, and 'an' is used

There are a couple of exceptions to the rule. Where the consonant 'h' is not pronounced,

So we say a happy man, but an honest man. The 'h' is not pronounced, so honest sounds

Where the vowel 'u' is pronounced like a 'y' sound, we use 'a'.

So we say an umbrella, but a user, because user sounds like it begins with a 'y'.

'A' and 'an' are only used with singular nouns. We use 'some' with plural nouns.

The indefinite articles 'a' or 'an' are used to refer to indefinite things, things that

aren't specific. You use them when you're referring to any member of a group of things.

The indefinite article does not refer to a particular thing, but one out of many possible

If I say I would like a banana, I just want any banana, it doesn't matter which one.

Let's look at an example of indefinite articles from the clip.

She says 'predicting the monsoon is a very difficult thing'. There are many things that

are difficult to do, and predicting the monsoon is just one of them.

Secondly she says 'we can make a real difference'. There are many differences that can be made

in the world, but she is just talking about one of them.

So when do we use the definite article 'the'?

Well, we use it when we're referring to definite, specific things. We also use 'the' when we're

talking about one particular member of a group.

Luckily there is only one form of the word 'the', and it can refer to both singular and

There is a difference in pronunciation though, when 'the' comes before a vowel sound, we

So 'thee' before vowel sounds, and 'thuh' before consonant sounds.

Let's look at the clip again. Listen for 'the'.

You really need a global integrated observing system, and the Argo program is the first

real big ocean attempt to do that, and it's the float technology that's allowed us to

She says 'the Argo program'. She uses 'the' because there is only one Argo program. It's

She also says 'the float technology'. She is talking about a particular type of float

technology, not just any float technology.

There was a third 'the'. She said 'the first real big ocean attempt'.

We use 'the' in front of first, second and so on, because they refer to something particular

In the same way we use 'the' in front of superlatives - the best example, the biggest banana and

so on - because there can only be one best, or biggest, of anything.

OK. So that's the major difference between definite and indefinite articles, but there

We use 'a' and 'an' with countable nouns, that is, if the noun can be counted.

We use 'the' with uncountable nouns, with things that you can't count.

I swam in the water. (Water cannot be counted.)

I drank the milk. (Milk cannot be counted.)

We also use 'a' with counting expressions like a bottle of, a cup of, a bit of.

The monsoon gets a lot of its energy from the equatorial and sub-tropical Indian Ocean.

She says, "The monsoon gets a lot of its energy".

Look at the monsoon, and the Indian Ocean.

These are both examples of other rules for 'the'.

We can use 'the' to describe 'generic nouns'.

A generic noun is a noun that describes a category or type of thing. It can often be

So sometimes the monsoon means the same as monsoons. She's talking about monsoons in

And here's another rule. We also use 'the' with oceans, seas, rivers and deserts.

We say the Indian Ocean, the Yangtze River, the Gobi Desert.

We also use 'the' for points on the globe - the Equator,

Choosing the right article can be very confusing, but if you follow the general rule that you

use 'the', the definite article, to refer to a particular thing or things, and 'a' and

'an', indefinite articles, to refer to one of a number of things, you shouldn't go too