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Nuala's Grammar Explanation: Articles introduction:

Today we're looking at articles - that's the words 'a', 'an' and 'the'. There are two kinds of
articles – definite and indefinite. The definite article is 'the' and the indefinite articles are 'a'
and 'an'. We'll be looking at this topic again in future Grammar Challenges but today we'll
begin by concentrating on one main difference between the definite and indefinite articles.
When we're referring to something or someone for the first time in a conversation, or a
piece of text, we use 'a'. Listen:
Helen: Have you got any kids?
Diarmuid: Yeah – a girl and a boy.
In this conversation Diarmuid uses 'a' because it's the first time he's mentioned his
children. But when we refer to something or someone both speakers in a conversation know
about, we change to use 'the'. Listen:
Diarmuid: The girl's 10 and the boy is seven.
Now both Helen and Diarmuid know which children they're talking about (they're talking
about Diarmuid's children) so that's why he uses 'the' and says 'the girl' and 'the boy'.
So to recap – we use 'a' or 'an' (the indefinite article) the first time we refer to something
or someone and we use 'the' (the definite article) when both the speaker and listener know
about the person or thing being discussed.
That's all from me, good luck with your grammar challenge!
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Find out more:

There are two types of articles. They are known as the definite and indefinite articles. The
words 'a' and 'an' are the indefinite articles and 'the' is the definite article. Articles are used
at the beginning of noun phrases.
a or an?
If the noun begins with a vowel sound then the indefinite article to use is 'an', e.g. an
apple. However if the noun begins with a consonant sound, then the indefinite article to use
is 'a', e.g. a cat.
The zero article
In some cases nouns such as plural and uncountable nouns do not have articles before
them. This lack of an article is sometimes known as the zero article, e.g. I've got two cats.
There are quite a [bad word] connected with the use of articles. Here is a basic one to start with:
-- We use the indefinite article – 'a' and 'an'
to refer to something or someone for the first time in a conversation:
She's has two children – a boy and a girl.
I hear you've just bought a new car.
She bought a lovely bag yesterday.
-- We use the definite article – 'the'
to refer to something or someone both speakers in a conversation know about or has
been referred to before:
The boy is 7 and the girl 4.
I'm going to use the new one for driving my family around and I'm keeping my old one
just for myself.
The bag was red leather and really lovely.
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