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Course: Grammar > Unit 4
Lesson 1: Introduction to adjectives and articlesIntroduction to articles
Articles—words like the, a, and an—are special adjectives we use to indicate whether a noun is specific or not specific.
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I've seen cases where people would say something like "The elephant is a fascinating animal" in stead of "Elephants are fascinating animals." Is this a case of "the" being used as an indefinite article or is it just plain incorrect grammar?(27 votes)
In the case of "The elephant is a fascinating animal." I'd say it's referring to the specific class of animals called elephants, as opposed to other types of animals. So it's class-specific rather than individual elephant-specific.(40 votes)
- when do you use an or a?(6 votes)
Example: An apple fell from the tree.
Example: A cat jumped off the desk.
Aum there are many more examples to use for An and A, but i hope these worked!(15 votes)
- Here's a question for David, our resident grammar expert. I often see written, "an historical", rather than "a historical". A historical would make more sense due to the sounded "h" in historical, and I've read that folks using "an" before historical are mistakenly trying to sound more literate, but that using "an" is actually incorrect.
Which way is correct? Or is "an historical" something that's just become a correct part of our language simply because so many folks use it?(6 votes)- Ha! This is a fight I rehash from time to time with my colleagues on Team history; as a descriptivist, I'm inclined to say
a historianora historical event, since it reflects English as it is spoken. My colleague Steve, however, saysan historical eventoran historian; this is the pronunciation I usually expect from American Newscaster English.
However, I think it's needlessly stuffy, and it maintains a pronunciation that isn't reflected in American English, per David Alexander's comment above—since I pronounce theh, I saya historical.(9 votes)
What grade do I have to pass the classes?(5 votes)
You don't need to pass. This is Khan Academy. Nobody grades you. So, enjoy!(5 votes)
Just these simple articles have turned out to be one of the most annoying problems for me in many English tests as well as academic writings. I find the distinctions among when to use a/an, when to use the, and when neither of them is needed, are really vague.(5 votes)- Welcome, Crowbar, to the English language.(1 vote)
is this a pun?0:02(3 votes)
Depending on how you view it, yes.(4 votes)
- Couldn't you say, "Another elephant" ? is 'Another' also an article?(2 votes)
- "Another" is a demonstrative adjective, akin to "this" or "that". "This elephant here, that elephant there and another elephant over in Botswana all have achy feet."(5 votes)
Is it right that a is referring to the noun like for example: a box. And the an is referring to nouns that start with vowels like this: an ant?(0 votes)- Yes it is correct. However, we use a in front of a consonant starting single noun. And an in front of a noun whose first letter sounds like a vowel. For example, we say a university, not an university. The reason is because here u sounds more like “you” not what is sounds like in umbrella. The example you gave is correct(5 votes)
- does david respond to these comments(1 vote)
- David Rheinstrom, who made these videos between 2014 and 2016, has not responded to comments and questions here since early in 2017.(5 votes)
0:02Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Grammarians,
I would like to tell you a tale of two elephants. In order to get at the idea of this thing called the article. We'll explain what that
is after I tell you about the elephant and an elephant. Now articles are words
like "a" or "an" or "the". Articles are a kind of adjective, some people would call them a determiner, that help you figure out
how important something is. Or how specific something is. So, articles. What articles do is they tell you whether or not something is specific. Are you thinking about any old elephant when you talk about an elephant, or are you thinking about
one elephant in particular? The elephant. And this is the difference. When we're talking about the elephant we're talking about a specific elephant. We have particular one in mind. This what's called the definite. Because it defines what
we're talking about. You know, this elephant could
be the queen of the elephants. Sometimes, when we make sentences we want to aim for that kind of precision. We want to be precise. We want to know exactly what we're talking and who we're talking about and why. That's a case where you
would use the word "the". Now if you're not being specific. If you're talking about any old elephant. An elephant that you're not
especially familiar with. An elephant you haven't introduced before. You would say "an" elephant, because it's not specific... and it's undefined. So, grammarians call that
an indefinite article. When you know who and
what you are talking about for sure you say "the". And when you're not sure,
you say "a" or "an". So if you knew you were talking
about a specific elephant. Say for example the
queen of the elephants. The queen. As indicated by her royal
crown, you would say "the". And if you were talking
about any old elephant? You'd say "an". You'd use
the indefinite article. We'll cover this more later. I just wanted to give you an introduction to the idea of what an article is. So "the" for specific, "a"
or "an" for nonspecific. You can learn anything, David out.