Articles 冠词 1

There are lots of rules about the use of articles. Here we’ll concentrate on 3 golden rules. Most mistakes with articles are made through breaking one of these rules.

关于冠词的使用有很多很多的规则。这里我们只列举三个黄金规则。很多人用错冠词主要是没有遵循其中的某一条规则。

1. When we say what people’s jobs are, we use a/an

当我们说人们的工作的时候，我们用a/an

·  She’s an architect.

·  He’s a doctor.

·  My grandfather was a teacher.

2. Singular, countable nouns always have an article –a/an or the –or another determiner (my, your, this, that etc.)

单数形式和可数的名词总是会带着冠词a，an或者the，或者是另一个限定词，如my，your，this 和that 等等。

Remember that we use the indefinite article - a/an - when we talk about something that is not definite.

请记住，当我们用不定冠词a和an的时候，我们是在讨论某些不确定的，模糊的东西。

·  I saw a good film yesterday. The listener doesn’t know which film.

·  There’s a man at the door. We don’t know who the man is.

·  Do you want a drink? It’s not a particular drink.

…and we use the definite article - the –when we talk about something more certain.

当我们用定冠词the的时候。我们是在讨论某样特定的已经确定的东西。

·  I’m going to take the dog for a walk. The dog is a pet –it’s not just any dog.

·  Have you seen the car key? Speaker and listener know which car. It’s not just any car.

·  They live in the house opposite ours. There’s only one house opposite. It’s not any house.

3.  When we talk about things in general we usually use a plural noun or an uncountable noun with no article.

当我们谈论概括性的事物，我们用名词复数或者一个不带冠词的不可数名词。

·  Birds eat worms. NOT The birds eat the worms.

·  Water flows downhill.

·  Kangaroos live in Australia.

BUT We went to the zoo and saw the kangaroos. These are particular kangaroos –not kangaroos in general.

There are many other rules about articles but remembering these 3 golden rules will reduce the number of mistakes you make.