ARTICLES AND PREPOSITIONS

A.   Problems with Articles

Articles	Countable Singular Nouns	Countable Plural Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
Indefinite (General)	A banana An apple	.....bananas .....apples	.....money .....juice
Definite (Specific)	The banana The apple	The bananas The apples	The money The juice

     B.    Distinguish A and An

A and An

A is used in front of a singular noun with a consonant sound.

An is used in front of a singular noun with a vowel sound.

Be careful of nouns beginning with H or U. They may have a vowel or a consonant sound.

For example :

·         The dishwasher quit his job because he was making only four dollars an hour.

·          It was an unexpected disappointment to receive a rejection letter from the university.

·         It is raining, so you should bring an umbrella.

C.    Make Articles Agree with Nouns

The following chart states the key point for you to remember about the agreement of articles with nouns:

AGREEMENT OF ARTICLES WITH NOUNS

You should never use a or an with a plural noun.

 

For example :

·         She went to school in a local community.

·         The teacher introduces a new student in front of the class.

·         Now we have an English class. Mr Agus is our English teacher. 

 

D. Distinguish Specific and General Ideas

Specific and General Ideas
Article	Meaning	Uses
A or An	General Idea	§  Use when there are many, and you do not know which one it is. §  Use when there are many, and you do not care which one it is.
The	Specific Ideas	§  Use when it is the only one. §  Use when there are many, and you know which one it is.

For example :

·         Mr. Lutfi tells us a fun story. The story is about Abu Nawas.

·         The students of VIIA have just finished doing an experiment in the laboratory.

·         Andi’s school has a nice library. The library is not so big, but it has a lot of books, newspaper, and magazines.

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WORD ORDER

That is the order of the words in which the noun is the headword, for example:

·         A beautiful young lady.

·         A luxurious modern hotel.

·         Some cool concrete houses.

·         A well-known black American scientist.

·         Five new black Italian shoes.

·         Three beautiful beach villas here.

THE ORDER OF A NOUN PHRASE

Determiners	Ordinative	EPITHET (Kata Sifat yang bisa Berupa)							Head Word Noun
		Descriptive	Size	Age	Temperature	Shape	Color	Classifying Noun
the	most	expensive	small	new	-	square	black	NOKIA	Hand phone
some	-	nice	-	-	hot	-	-	Javanese	Drinks
-	six	beautiful	big	old	-	round	green	American	Garden

Note:

Ø  Determiner                  : a, an, the, this, that, these, those, five, some, many, a lot of, much, another, etc.

Ø  Ordinative                   : one, two, three, first, second, third, smaller, more expensive, the smallest, the most expensive, etc.

Ø  Descriptive                  : beautiful, ugly, good, bad, cheap, expensive, etc.

Ø  Size                             : big, small, tall, short, wide, narrow, medium, large, etc.

Ø  Age                             : young, old, new, etc.

Ø  Temperature                : hot, cold, cloudy, warm, etc.

Ø  Shape                          : round, square, triangle, flat, etc.

Ø  Color                           : white, black, blue, green, etc.

Ø  Origin                          : American, Vietnamese, Malaysian, etc.

Ø   Classifying Noun       : Football, American, Woman, etc.

Ø  Head Word Noun       : Hand phone, Drinks, Garden, etc.

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