到底什麼時候要+the阿 SOS

Article is one of the difficult issues for English. It needs time to get yourself familiarized with it. If you can use them well, you would make your sentences in essay or composition smoother. I can only give you an idea the rest you have to learn it by heart, please don't try to learn it by rules.

The three articles (a, an, the) are actually a tiny adjectives that tell us whether a noun refers to a particular thing(the chair, the ottoman) or just one of those things (a chair, an ottoman). "The" is called definite article; "a" and "an" are indefinite articles.

For examples:

"The" is the definite article. It indicates that a noun refers to someone or something in particular

The black bird sat in the cedar tree, sheltered from the sun.

"a" and "an" is the infinite articles, They indicate that a noun refers to one of a general group.

"a" is used before a word that begins with consonant SOUND.

"an" is used before a vowel SOUND, or before a word begins with "h", but "h" is not pronounced.

A lion crouched in the tall grass.
This is an excellent essay.
An hour passed while we chose a gift for John.

These are all SINGLE sentences, so it is much clear for us to use "a", "an", or "the". However, when you are writing an essay, a composition, ... and so on. The situation will be more complicated, because how to use "a", "an", "the" will need the sentences that are surrounding the NOUN that you want to add "a", "an", or "the". This needs lots of practice to achieve the mission. It is not a mission impossible, but a mission possible by practicing. Pay attention to the articles I use in my explanation.






2011-10-31 04:16:35 補充：
In my explanation, I found that there are a few places that I forgot to put an article, can you find them ?

2011-10-31 12:52:13 補充：
You shall not say exception, because it is not exception but not necessary, for examples:

John is a student.
The Johnson is a family.

got it ?

2011-10-31 12:54:52 補充：
The missing article is for "an essay" and "a composition" in the second sentence of the very first paragraph. Again, pay attention to how I use article in my explanation.

2011-10-31 12:58:23 補充：
You don't use "the leaves" is because you are NOT talking about particular leaves. You refer to only leaves in general. Therefore, there is NO need for "the". Also, since "leaves" is plural, so you cannot use "a".

你好!^^ 目前我小五，學英文學的相當辛苦= =，今天你的問題，一半看不懂。

反正，你就是想了解甚麼時候前面要加the嘛?!


要加the的時候the後面的名詞會有母音a e i o u ( 且人名前面不可以the!!!)

Really? you mean the first paragraph (Article is.....) and the second paragraph ( The three.....)?

if so, I can't find them out >< show me the answer , please

2011-10-31 14:35:26 補充：
but it has " in the yard" at the end of the sentence

every noun need have article???

2011-10-31 14:35:59 補充：
need to have article

一般情況下如果有要特別指定的某項事物，就會在這項事物前加the。

舉個例子，
1) That's a boy. （那是一個男孩）
2) That's the boy. （就是那個男孩）


再舉個例：

3) Emma is so beautiful and smart, she would be the girl that I want.
Emma真的很漂亮又聰明，她會是我想要的那個女生。

在這裡Emma就是被指定的物件，所以she's the girl。也就是說，我想要的是Emma這個人！


想像一下如果這時把 the 改成 a，就會變成這樣：

4) Emma is so beautiful and smart, she would be a girl that I want.
Emma真的很漂亮又聰明，她會是我想要的一個女生。

在這裡Emma只是眾多girls的其中一個，也就是說除了Emma外，我還可以想要別的女生。換句話說，我想要的可以是任何一個漂亮又聰明的女生，至於是不是Emma都無所謂。

2011-11-06 10:15:24 補充：
Leaves need to be in the yard = 院子裡要有樹葉。（院子是特指對象）

The leaves need to be in the yard = 這些樹葉要(出現/放)在院子裡。（樹葉是特指對象）