Dear Mr. Kyaw
I hope that you won’t be angry if I try to fight my way through the articles and prepositions. I know "articles and prepositions are still your best enemies ". But they are my enemies also. I attempt to cut a passage through them. If I get stuck I hope I can ask your opinion. You don’t have to do anything because I KNOW surely that you were mistaken when you wrote this sentence. I hope you will enjoy my hassle.
Regards:
Kati Svaby
Hello, when I began to collect the uncountable nouns( bootlicking (u), or the nouns which are in plural (pyjamas) or the singular nouns which with the + sing. noun means all of them and the verb is in singular. When I began this thread I wanted to prepare the use of indefinite and definite articles.
english-test.net/forum/ftopic122184.html
Since I began to listen the nouns in this way, I was taken aback that every day I met countless these kinds of words.
Non-count nouns = no article (Ø)
a. Temperature is measured in degrees.
b. Money makes the world go around.
Plural nouns = no article (Ø)
a. Volcanoes are formed by pressure under the earth’s surface.
b. Quagga zebras were hunted to extinction.
Singular nouns = the (with ‘the’ it means all of them with singular verb)
a. The computer is a marvellous invention.
b. The elephant lives in family groups.
We use this form (the + singular) most often in technical and scientific writing to generalize about classes of animals, body organs, plants, musical instruments, and complex inventions. We do not use this form for simple inanimate objects, like books or coat racks. For these objects, use (Ø + plural).
Uncountable noun:
An uncountable noun has only one form: rice, sand, music, money, luck, electricity,water, honey hair breadsugar
Non-count nouns = no article (Ø)
a. Our science class mixed boric acid with water today.
b. We serve bread and water on weekends.
we cant say one sand, two sands etc.
that’s why we say:
a bowl of rice
a piece of music
a drop of water
a game of tennis
we can say without any article
I eat rice every day.
There’s blood on your shirt.
Can you hear music?
Sugar isn’t very good for you.
We can say the same words with ‘the’ when we speak about a particular thing.
I am eating the rice what you left on the plate.
There is the blood of your friend on your shirt.
Can you hear the music in the film?
Can you pass the sugar, please?
Which is the difference when we speak about sth in general or particular
General without articles:
I like working with people.
Do you like coffee?
Particular:
I like the people I work with.
Did you like the coffee we had after our meal last night?
We say most people/most books/most cars/most tourists etc. (NOT the most people)
Many nouns can be used as countable or uncoutable nouns, usually with a difference in meaning.
For example:
a paper(c) = a newspaper
some paper b[/b] =(material for writing on)
a hair = one single hair
He has long hair.b[/b]
room (c) 7 aroom in a house
room b [/b]There isn’t room. = (space)
experiences (c)= things what happened with me
I had lot of experience.b[/b]= knowledge and skill
Have a good time! (c) =Enjoy yourself.
I haven’t got time. b[/b]
coffee/tea/bear/juice = are normally b[/b]
But restaurant you can say two coffees please.
With uncountable you can’t say an indefinite article. You NEVER say : a bread
You say : some bread,a loaf of bread,a slice of bread
You cannot say a travel but you can say a journey
a job (C)…work (U)
a view (C)… scenery (U)
a nice day (c)…weather(u)
bags and cases (C) …luggage/baggage (U)
a good suggestion (C)…It was good advice.(U)
other uncountable nouns:
accommodation, advice, baggage, behaviour, bread, chaos, damage, furniture, information, luck, luggage, news, permission, progress, scenery, traffic, weather work.
Examples:
1.I am looking for furnished accommodation.
2. Follow your doctor’s advice.
3. Where we can put our baggage?
4. His behaviour towards me is very good.
5. I had to buy some bread.
6. There was total chaos on the streets.
7. The earthquake caused damage to the people.
8. We have no furniture.
9. I’ll give you plenty of information.
10. I had bad luck.
11. I didn’t have much luggage.
12. Bad news doesn’t make people happy.
13. You must ask for permission.
14. I made progress.
15. Do you enjoy the scenery?
16. Who likes the rush-hour traffic?
17. We had a very good weather.
18. He is looking for work.
“This one exactly,” you have two article choices: Ø, the
“What kind of noun is it?”
1.(Most) Proper nouns = no article (Ø)
a. My research will be conducted in Luxembourg.
b. Dr. Homer inspired my interest in Ontario.
Note: Some proper nouns do require “the.” See the special notes on nouns below.
Non-count nouns = the
a. Step two: mix the water with the boric acid.
b. The laughter of my children is contagious.
Plural nouns = the
a. We recruited the nurses from General Hospital.
b. The projects described in your proposal will be fully funded.
Singular nouns = the
a. Bring the umbrella in my closet if it looks like rain.
b. Did you get the visa you applied for?
In certain situations, we always use “the” because the noun or the context makes it clear that we’re talking about “this one exactly.” The context might include the words surrounding the noun or the context of knowledge that people share. Examples of these situations include:
Unique nouns
a. The earth rotates around the sun.
b. The future looks bright!
Shared knowledge (both participants know what’s being referred to, so it’s not necessary to specify with any more details)
a. The boss just asked about the report.
b. Meet me in the parking lot after the show.
Second mention (with explicit first mention)
a. I found a good handout on English articles. The handout is available online.
b. You can get a giant ice cream cone downtown. If you can eat the cone in five seconds, you get another one free.
Second mention (with implied first mention—this one is very, very common)
a. Dr. Frankenstein performed a complicated surgery. He said the patient is recovering nicely. (“The patient” is implied by “surgery”—every surgery has a patient.)
b. My new shredder works fabulously! The paper is completely destroyed. (Again, “the paper” is implied by “shredder.”)
Ordinals and superlatives (first, next, primary, most, best, least, etc.)
a. The first man to set foot on the moon…
b. The greatest advances in medicine…
Specifiers (sole, only, principle, etc.)
a. The sole purpose of our organization is… (sole (adj) =only single)
b. The only fact we need to consider is…
Restricters (words, phrases, or clauses that restrict the noun to one definite meaning)
a. Study the chapter on osmosis for the test tomorrow.
b. Also study the notes you took at the lecture that Dr. Science gave yesterday.
Plural nouns in partitive -of phrases (phrases that indicate parts of a larger whole) (Note: Treat “of the” as a chunk in these phrases—both words in or both words out)
a. Most of the international students (emphasis on part of the group)
b. Most international students (emphasis on the group as a whole)
c. Several of the risk factors (emphasis on part of the group)
d. Several risk factors (emphasis on the group as a whole)
e. A few of the examples (emphasis on part of the group)
f. A few examples (emphasis on the group as a whole)
Note:
“Few examples” is different from “a few examples”. Compare:
The teacher gave a few good examples. (emphasizes the presence of good examples)
The teacher gave few good examples. (emphasizes the lack of good examples)
Uncountable nouns
As the name suggests, uncountable nouns (also called non-count or mass nouns) are things that can not be counted. They use no article for generic and indefinite reference, and use “the” for definite reference. Uncountable nouns fall into several categories:
Abstractions: laughter, information, beauty, love, work, knowledge
Fields of study: biology, medicine, history, civics, politics (some end in -s but are non-count)
Recreational activities: football, camping, soccer, dancing (these words often end in -ing)
Natural phenomena: weather, rain, sunshine, fog, snow (but events are countable: a hurricane, a blizzard, a tornado)
Whole groups of similar/identical objects: furniture, luggage, food, money, cash, clothes
Liquids, gases, solids, and minerals: water, air, gasoline, coffee, wood, iron, lead, boric acid
Powders and granules: rice, sand, dust, calcium carbonate
Diseases: cancer, diabetes, schizophrenia (but traumas are countable: a stroke, a heart attack, etc.)
Mostly the meaning is different between a noun (C) and (U)
John’s performance on all three exams was exceptional.
John’s performances of Shakespeare were exceptional.
To be well educated, you need good instruction.
To assemble a complicated machine, you need good instructions.
Proper nouns
Proper nouns (names of people, places, religions, languages, etc.) are always definite. They take either “the” or no article. Use “the” for regions (like the Arctic) and for a place that’s made up of a collection of smaller parts (like a collection of islands, mountains, lakes, etc.).
Examples:
Places (singular, no article): Lake Erie, Paris, Zimbabwe, Mount Rushmore
Places (collective, regional, “the”): the Great Lakes, the Middle East, the Caribbean
When a person’s name [b]is part of a theory, device, principle, law, etc., use “the” when the name does not have a possessive apostrophe. Do not use “the” when the name has an apostrophe.
Examples:
the Doppler effect…Einstein’s theory of relativity
the Pareto index…Murphy’s law
the Reimann hypothesis…Halley’s comet
the Kalman filter…Thales’theorem
the Pythagorean theorem…Darwin’s theory
Note: Articles change when proper nouns function as adjectives
Notice how the article changes with “Great Lakes” in the examples below. When place names are used as adjectives, follow the article rule for the noun they are modifying.
Examples:
I’m studying …
…the Great Lakes. (as noun)(Lake Superior, Lake Michigan,Lake Huron,Lake Erie,Lake Ontario)
…a Great Lakes shipwreck.(as adjective with “one of many” singular noun)
…the newest Great Lakes museum. (as adjective with “this one exactly” singular noun)
…Great Lakes shipping policies. (as adjective with “one of many” plural noun)
…Great Lakes history. (as adjective with “one of many” uncountable noun)
We do not normally use “the” with names of companies. For example:
Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub.com
General Motors, Air France, British Airways
Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd
We do not normally use “the” for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -'s or -s). For example:
shops…Harrods,Marks & Spencer, Maceys
banks… Barclays Bank
hotels, restaurants…Steve’s Hotel, Joe’s Cafe, McDonalds
churches, cathedrals…St John’s Church, St Peter’s Cathedral
We do not normally use “the” with names of places. For example:
towns… Washington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo
states, regions… Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe
countries… England, Italy, Brazil
continents… Asia, Europe, North America
islands… Corsica
mountains… Everest,
Exception! If a country name includes “States”,“Kingdom”, “Republic” etc, we use “the”:
states…the United States, the US, the United States ofAmerica, the USA
kingdom…the United Kingdom, the UK
republic…the French Republic
We do not use “the” with “President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name”:
the president, the king… President Bush (not *the President Bush)
the captain, the detective… Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo
the doctor, the professor… Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle
my uncle, your aunt… Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill
Mr Gates (not *the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton, Miss Black
Look at these example sentences:
I wanted to speak to the doctor.
I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.
Who was the president before President Kennedy?
We do not use “the” with "Lake/Mount + Name":
the lake…Lake Victoria, Lake Balaton, Lake Baikal
the mount…Mount Everest, Mount Mecsek, Mount Gellert,
Look at this example sentence:
We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic view across the lake.
We do not normally use “the” for roads, streets, squares, parks etc:
streets etc… Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue,
squares etc… Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus
parks etc… Central Park, Kew Gardens
Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use “the”:
people… Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral
places…Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle
… …THE…
We normally use “the” for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:
canals:…the Suez Canal
rivers:… the River Nile, the Nile, the Danube, The thames, the Seine
seas.…the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceans…the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific
We normally use “the” for plural names of people and places:
people (families, for example)…the Clintons, the Svabys, the Habsburgs
countries…the Philippines, the United States
island groups…the Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain ranges…the Himalayas, the Alps, the Tatras, the Carpathians
Look at these sentences:
I saw the Clintons today.
Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies.
Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.
We normally use “the” with the following sorts of names:
hotels, restaurants…the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banks…the National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatres…the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema
museums…the British Museum, the National Gallery
buildings…the White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapers…the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post, The Sun
organisations…the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union The Academy of Fine Arts
We normally use “the” for names made with “of”:
the Tower of London
the Gulf of Siam
the Tropic of Cancer
the London School of Economics
the Bank of France
the Statue of Liberty
The Academie of Fine Arts