The article is in English. Types and functions of articles in English

It seems that these little words are completely unnecessary. Indeed, why in English language articles? It seems to complicate all foreigners life. But this is not so, with their help you can express yourself very accurately and concisely, the main thing is to use them correctly.

Artikli in English

Like most Europeans, the British in their speech use parts of speech that slightly frighten and confuse Russian-speaking. Of course, this is an article. They are also in German, French, Italian, yes, it seems, in all Romano-Germanic languages. But in the Russian there are none, so for many it becomes a serious difficulty.

So, how many articles in English? Modern linguists recorded only three: definite, indefinite and zero. The fact that they are extremely necessary, says at least the fact that in the modern text they occupy about 9%. But how did they come about and why?

History of origin and development

The indefinite article is derived from the word one - "one". Sometimes, for the convenience of pronunciation, it takes the form an - it happens if the noun that follows it begins with a vowel. The is the product of the transformation of the demonstrative pronoun that is "that". Of course, it was somewhat difficult to use the original forms of the concept in which articles are found today, so that the modern versions of them gradually became entrenched in the language. By the way, the history of origin is very useful for understanding the cases when it is worthwhile to say a , and in which - the .

Article functions

In English, for many centuries, a grammatical system, quite simple for the European language, was formed. Here the article acts as the determinant of a noun, but at the same time it gives the minimum information - whether it's concrete or abstract, countable or not, was mentioned earlier. This somewhat simplifies the matter, for, for example, in German this same part of the speech also gives information on the case, number and genus of the lexical unit following it.

In the sentence, the article is placed immediately before the word to which it refers, or before its definition. By the way, it can be not only a noun, but also a substantivized adjective and participle, as well as verbal forms. However, this can already be attributed to grammatical debris. So, for simplicity, you can think of all these parts of speech as nouns, which is how they are most often translated into Russian. Also, do not forget about adjectives and numerals, but more on this below.

Types of articles

So, as already mentioned, linguists distinguish three types: definite, indefinite and zero. The latter can be confused with the absence of the article in general, but this is not so - they are used before each noun, and there are no exceptions. It is important only to understand and remember how to properly arrange them, and then the number of errors will drop dramatically.

Use

Certain types of articles in the English language, obviously, are needed in different situations. But how can this be learned? Each noun has a determinant before itself - this is the first thing to remember. And the way it is, can influence a lot, up to the meaning of the word. But more often than not everything is not so scary, and even if you completely ignore articles in a speech, native speakers will understand it. To look at this, however, will be somewhat strange, for example, as if all nouns in the usual sentence in Russian were only in the nominative case. Studying foreign grammar, it is necessary to proceed from the fact that it has developed not just so, and therefore, it is worth it to respect.

In general, the rules of use are as follows:

• The indefinite article is used with nouns in the singular (specific and countable), which are mentioned for the first time. This also applies to the construction there is. In addition, an indefinite article is used in the designation of a person / object as one of many similar ones.

There is a ball on the floor.

I have a doll.

My brother is a student.

• The one in English is needed when it comes to a familiar subject or a set of them. He is also always used with collective nouns and in front of adjectives in excellent form. The same concerns limiting definitions, and then in translation the article will designate the "same".

There is a ball on the floor. The ball is red.

I have the best doll.

Now he is again the Bob I told you about.

If there is a possessive (my, your, his, etc.) or a demonstrative (this, that, these, those) pronoun or numeral before the noun, then they replace the article, and it is no longer needed.

It would seem that everything is simple. But this is not all, and you need to know about some of the features that you can face.

Special cases

The study would have been much easier if it had been so easy to explain where and how to put the articles. Exceptions in English, unfortunately, are not uncommon, but without them there are many nuances, without which, alas, speech will remain illiterate.

Article A (AN):

• Neighbors with an abstract noun if there is a descriptive definition;
• Can be used before the name of one's own in the sense of "certain", "someone";
• Stands before nouns, if it takes the value of "one" or "one more" (sometimes with an uncountable value);
• It is used in some stable phrases.

Article THE:

• In English stands next to the family name, which denotes the whole family;
• It is used in the designation of a concept unique in its kind (sky, queen);
• Is used with the names of some states, including the words kingdom, federation, republic, etc .;
• Stands after the designs of one of, most of, often after both and all (only with countable ones);
• Is used with animate nouns to emphasize the prominence of the persons they designate;
• Need before people in the meaning of "people";
• Points to collective concepts that denote different social strata;
• A noun in a single form, denoting a set of objects;
• Is placed before the definitions of the same, next (in the value of "next"), last (previous), following;
• It is necessary before ordinals;
• Always used with the sides of the light;
• With oceans, seas, rivers and most other water bodies, except for exceptions (bays and individual lakes);
• With the names of archipelagoes, groups of islands;
• With the names of mountain ranges, systems;
• With the names of most international as well as national political and other organizations;
• Most often with the names of famous theaters, art galleries, museums, etc .;
• With the names of serious sporting events;
• It is used in some stable phrases.

Yes, the list is impressive, but it's worth remembering that theory does not matter if knowledge is not applied in practice.

Zero article

Even if it seems that he does not exist, he must eat. The absence of an article in English, that is, its zero form, is also information about that word that comes after the blank. So, the cases of such use are the following:

• The presence of another determinant (pronoun, numeral or negation no );
• The first used noun in the plural;
• Name proper, names of cities, continents, countries (except for exceptions), months, days of the week, educational institutions;
• The abstract noun;
• The names of sciences;
• The names of newspapers, if the article is not included there;
• An uncountable noun;
• Names of individual islands;
• Names of lakes and bays;
• The names of individual mountain peaks;
• Headlines of newspapers / magazines;
• Noun serving as an appeal;
• In combinations that denote playing a musical instrument or sport;
• Members of the same family in relation to each other;
• In some stable phrases.

It seems that it is very difficult, but it's not so at all. This knowledge comes gradually in the process of learning, so it is not usually necessary to memorize these rules specially. And, by the way, this section is usually mastered much faster than the question of how the article is used in the English language, because there are many exceptions and special cases.

How to remember?

As in any other field of knowledge, only practice is working here. Knowing the theory, you need to constantly find its use. Of course, being in a Russian-speaking environment, it is difficult to find an interlocutor, especially if the study has just begun. But in the age of universal computerization is not a problem to look for a friend on online correspondence. However, it should be taken into account that the practice should be comprehensive, and it is necessary to train first of all the skills of oral speech. First you have to suffer and blush, picking up words and remembering familiar expressions, but then you do not even have to wonder where to put the article in English, and where - a . Well, in case there are serious doubts, you can go for a little trick and replace it with a possessive pronoun or some.