English Articles

In English, knowing when to use 'a' or 'the' can be difficult. Fortunately, there are rules to help you, but you need to know what type of noun you are using.

Grammar rule 1

When you have a single, countable English noun, you must always have an article before it. We cannot say "please pass me pen", we must say "please pass me the pen" or "please pass me a pen" or "please pass me your pen".

Nouns in English can also be uncountable. Uncountable nouns can be concepts, such as 'life', 'happiness' and so on, or materials and substances, such as 'coffee', or 'wood'.

Grammar rule 2

Uncountable nouns don't use 'a' or 'an'. This is because you can't count them. For example, advice is an uncountable noun. You can't say "he gave me an advice", but you can say "he gave me some advice", or "he gave me a piece of advice".

Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable. For example, we say "coffee" meaning the product, but we say "a coffee" when asking for one cup of coffee.

Grammar rule 3

You can use 'the' to make general things specific. You can use 'the' with any type of noun – plural or singular, countable or uncountable.

"Please pass me a pen" – any pen.
"Please pass me the pen" – the one that we can both see.

"Children grow up quickly" – children in general.
"The children I know grow up quickly" – not all children, just the ones I know.

"Poetry can be beautiful"- poetry in general.
"The poetry of Hopkins is beautiful" – I'm only talking about the poetry Hopkins wrote.

More uses of articles in English

Rivers, mountain ranges, seas, oceans and geographic areas all use 'the'.
For example, "The Thames", "The Alps", "The Atlantic Ocean", "The Middle East".

Unique things have 'the'.
For example, "the sun", "the moon".

Some institutional buildings don't have an article if you visit them for the reason these buildings exist. But if you go to the building for another reason, you must use 'the'.

"Her husband is in prison." (He's a prisoner.)
"She goes to the prison to see him once a month."

"My son is in school." (He's a student.)
"I'm going to the school to see the head master."

"She's in hospital at the moment." (She's ill.)
"Her husband goes to the hospital to see her every afternoon."

Musical instruments use 'the'.
"She plays the piano."

Sports don't have an article.
"He plays football."

Illnesses don't have an article.
"He's got appendicitis."
But we say "a cold" and "a headache".

Jobs use 'a'.
"I'm a teacher."

Countries
We don't use 'a' if the country is singular. "He lives in England." But if the country's name has a "plural" meaning, we use 'the'. "The People's Republic of China", "The Netherlands", "The United States of America".

Continents, towns and streets don't have an article.
"Africa", "New York", "Church Street".

Theatres, cinemas and hotels have 'the'.
"The Odeon", "The Almeira", "The Hilton".

Abbreviations use 'the'.
"the UN", "the USA", "the IMF".

We use 'the' before classes of people.
"the rich", "the poor", "the British".

Frequency

Here are some ways to say how often you do something.


always
often / frequently
usually / generally
sometimes / occasionally
hardly ever / rarely
never

For example, "I always drink coffee in the morning" means I drink coffee every morning.

Be careful of the pronunciation of "rarely". The "are" part of the word is spoken like the word air. The word has two syllables – 'rare' and 'ly'.

Putting these expressions into a sentence

These words go before the main verb.

"She often goes to the beach in summer."

They go after the verb 'to be'.

"He is occasionally late for meetings."

They go after 'modal' or 'auxiliary' verbs.

"It can sometimes get cold in the UK."

"I have never been to the USA."

'From time to time' is an expression that means the same as 'sometimes'. It normally goes at the end of a sentence.

For example, "I go to restaurants from time to time."

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English Adjectives

Knowing what is an adjective and what is an adverb is very important in English grammar. For example, the following sentences are typical mistakes, caused by confusion over the difference between adjectives and adverbs.

"He works hardly." ("He works hard.")
"She writes good." ("He writes well.")
"It's a really problem." ("It's a real problem.")

Adjectives describe nouns.
"A good student."
"A nice day."
"He is interesting."

Adverbs describe verbs or adjectives.
"He eats well."
"She learns quickly."
"I'm really tired."

Problems

1. Some adjectives and adverbs have the same form.

"She's a fast driver." (adj)
"She drives fast." (adv)

"TOEFL is a hard exam." (adj)
"The students work hard." (adv)

"She has straight hair." (adj)
"He went straight home." (adv)

2. Not all adverbs end in -ly.

"She works well with others."
"Eagles fly high in the sky."

3. Some adverbs have two meanings.

Hard
"He works hard."
"I hardly know him." (barely)

Close
"She sat close to the conductor on the bus." (next to)
"I listened closely to what he said." (paying attention)

Dead
"You're dead right!" (completely right)
"This snake is deadly – watch out for it." (fatal)

Fair
"He was fairly treated by the Immigration authorities." (justly)
"It's fairly cold today." (quite)

Fine
"How do you feel? Fine." (well)
"Finely chop the tomatoes." (in small pieces)

Free
"The english-at-home.com website is free of charge." (no money needed)
"Children can play freely in this park." (no limits to their freedom)

High
"We'll need to raise prices high in order to survive." (high prices)
"I think highly of him." (a high opinion)
"He's highly paid." (very well paid)

Late
"He arrived late for the meeting." (not on time)
"There have been a few complaints lately." (recently)

Right
"She walked right up to him and demanded to see the manager." (didn't stop until she got close to him)
"He rightly thought that he was going to lose his job." (correctly thought)

Wrong
"He wrongly told her that he had been promoted." (incorrectly)
"This is spelt wrong." (incorrect)
(You can only use 'wrong' when it's after the verb.)

4. Some words that end in -ly are not adverbs, but are adjectives.
For example, lovely, friendly, silly, lonely.

"She is silly."
"She behaves in a silly way."

"Her children are lovely."
"He treated her in a lovely way."

5. Some verbs are followed by adjectives.

"You look good today!"
"This soup tastes nice."
"He seems pleasant."
"I don't feel very happy at the moment."

In these examples, you are describing the subject (such as 'the soup') rather than the verb ('tastes').

Time expressions in English

There are many words and expressions to refer to time. You can use these to sequence events and to make stories and anecdotes more interesting.

The present – permanent

Use the present simple tense to refer to permanent situations in the present.

I now live in a small town.
Nowadays I live in a small town.
These days, I don't have much of a social life.

The present – temporary

Use the present continuous tense to refer to temporary situations in the present.

At present / At the moment I'm living in a small town.
For the time being I'm living in a small town, but I hope to move soon.

Talking about a period of time in the past

My mother started work as a nurse in the 1960s.
In those days she lived in London.
Back then nurses were badly paid.
At that time, nurses lived in special accommodation.

Talking about a single event in the past

At one time she lost her door key and had to stay in a hotel.
On one occasion she nursed the son of a famous politician.

Sequencing events in the past

There are many ways to sequence events in the past. Here are some of the more common ones.

After (in the middle of a sentence)
Afterwards / After that / After a while (at the beginning of a sentence)
Then / Before (in the middle or at the beginning of a sentence)
Before that / Previously / Until then (At the beginning of a sentence)
By the time (in the middle of a sentence followed by a past perfect tense)
By then / by that time (at the beginning of a sentence)

I went shopping after I finished work.
I worked all day in the office. Afterwards / After that, I went shopping.
I went shopping. After a while, I got bored.
I worked before I went shopping.
I went shopping at 6pm. Before that / Previously / Until then I had worked all day in the office.
I worked all day, then I went shopping.
I was desperate to go shopping by the time I had finished work.
I worked until 6pm. By then / By that time, I was glad for the opportunity to go shopping.

Other expressions to refer to the next event in a story

Later on
Before long
At that moment / Suddenly
Meanwhile
At the same time
Simultaneously (a more formal way of saying meanwhile / at the same time)

I worked and then went shopping. Later on I met some friends for pizza.
I waited for a while in the restaurant. Before long, the waiter came up and asked me…
At that moment / Suddenly, I heard the door slam.
Meanwhile / At the same time / Simultaneously my phone started to ring.

People who are no longer "around"

An ex-president = no longer the president: "The ex-president of France is still influential."
A previous / former boss: "A previous boss taught me how to make presentations."
"My former boss now works for a different company."
My late wife = my wife who has died: "My late wife painted watercolours."

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Make and let

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In English, the verbs "make" and "let" are followed by an object and the infinitive without "to":

They can't make you work late.
She made him do the exercise again.

She lets the students sing in class.
His parents let him paint his room black.

Be careful: in the passive, "make" is followed by the infinitive with "to":

They were made to do the exercise again.

"Have" can also be used in this pattern:

Please have your secretary call me as soon as possible.

(Please ask your secretary to call me…)

Other English verbs not followed by the infinitive + to

Modal verbs (can, will, would, etc) are followed by the infinitive without "to":

I can see him clearly.
They will leave early tomorrow.
If I were you, I would talk to her.

(Click here for more information on modals.)

See / hear / watch someone followed by the infinitive without "to":

She saw the girl steal the money. (She saw all the action of stealing.)
I heard him tell her about the party." (I heard all about the party.)
I watched them do the exercise. (I watched them complete the exercise.)

But remember:
If you follow these verbs with the gerund form (ing), you only see part of the action.

She saw him talking to the teacher. (She didn't see the whole conversation.)

See also How to use gerunds in English

Asking for directions in English

Here is some useful vocabulary for asking directions in English.

Asking for directions

"How do I get to your office?"

"Can you tell me the best way of getting to your office?"

"What's the quickest way of getting to your office?"

"Where are you exactly?"

Getting information

"Will you be coming by car or by train?"

"It's much easier if you take the train."

"Which hotel are you staying at?"

General information in English

"We're not far from…" or "We're quite close to…"

"It's about a mile / kilometre / two blocks from…"

"We're opposite / next to / in front of / across the road from / round the corner from the supermarket."

Giving directions in English

"Come off the motorway / highway at Junction / Exit 12."

"It's signposted 'Manchester'."

"Follow the signs to …"

"There's a one-way system in the centre of town."

"Take the 'A12' to 'Chelmsford'."

"Go straight on / left / right at the lights / at the roundabout /at the junction of … and …"

"Go past the supermarket."

"You'll come to / see …"

"It's the first turning on the right after the bank."

Use landmarks to help

"You'll see a large sign / roundabout."

"On your left you'll see an industrial centre / a hospital / the police station."

"Just after the level crossing / shopping centre (or mall)."

"Go past the petrol station / the garage."

Final tips

If you're giving directions over the phone, remember to speak slowly to allow the other person to write things down.

Check that the other person has understood.

If you're speaking face-to-face with someone, use your hands to show left, right, or straight on.

Use "please" when you ask someone to give you directions. It's polite, and will normally get you what you want!