yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Definite and indefinite articles | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

So we've covered the basic idea that divides the usage of the from "a" and "an." You know, "the" is the definite article, and "a" or "an" is the indefinite. So when you're being non-specific in language, you would use the indefinite article, as in "May I have an orange?" Because it doesn't matter which orange you're asking for; you don't care. It's any orange.

As opposed to if you wanted "the orange," this usage is much more specific, and it seems to indicate that there is only one orange. You see the orange in particular that you want; you're identifying it, and you're asking for it. That's what this definite usage is. Something that's interesting about the word "the" is that it can be used for both singular and plural nouns.

So it's both singular and plural. You could say, "May I have the orange?" You could also say, "May I have the oranges?" "A" and "an" does not really allow this; it is only singular. So you can't say, "May I have an oranges?" This is not standard. What you would probably say instead was, "May I have some oranges?" This is not standard; it does not work in standard American English.

The other thing about "a" or "an" is that it's "a" or "an." The indefinite article changes depending on the vowel sound that comes after it, so it changes for vowel sounds. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means that if you know that the word that you're going to say next starts with "a," "e," "i," "o," or "u," then you're going to change it to "an."

So it's the difference between saying "a box" and "an apple." And what we don't say in standard American English is "a apple." It's not as easy on the mouth, frankly. It takes a little bit more effort, and any linguist will tell you that the way languages develop is that they reward laziness.

So we say "a box," but we say "an apple." Something a little weird, though: you want to make sure that you're looking for vowel sounds, not just for vowels. Because some vowels, for example, the letter "u," don't always produce the "oo" sound. Sometimes, if they're at the beginning of a word, like in the word "union," if you say "a union," that produces a "y" sound.

And "y" is technically a consonant sound; it's not a vowel. But there are certainly cases, like "an underwater boat," where the letter "u" does produce an "u" sound, and that's a vowel. So if you're going to start the word with a vowel sound, what you want to do is choose "an" instead of "a," but just be careful of the letter "u," for example.

So to recap: "the" is the definite article; you can use it for both singular and plural usage. "May I have the orange?" "May I have the oranges?" "A" or "an" is indefinite, and it's only singular. So you can say "may I have an orange" or "may I have some oranges." Before a vowel sound, "a" changes to "an," so you say "a box" but "an apple," not "a apple." You say "a union" but "an underwater boat." You can learn anything. David out.

More Articles

View All
Socially efficient and inefficient outcomes
Let’s study the market for soda a little bit. So, we’re going to draw our traditional axes. So that is price, and that is quantity. We have seen our classic supply and demand curves. So, this could be our upward sloping supply curve. At a low price, not a…
Three Awesome High School Science Projects
By the end of this video, one of these three high school seniors will be awarded two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for their original scientific research. Now, the way this went down was, Regeneron, the sponsor of this video, invited me out to Washi…
Checkers Is the Heart and Soul of This Neighborhood | Short Film Showcase
[Music] Not only do you enjoy the camaraderie of it, but you make longtime friendships. We know the family, we know their friends, we know what they do and how they travel in life. When people are sick, we go by and check on them. When people go to jail, …
Determinants of price elasticity of demand | APⓇ Microeconomics | Khan Academy
In other videos, we have already started talking about the price elasticity of demand, and what we’re going to do in this video is think about the factors that might drive the price elasticity of demand in a given market to be more or less elastic. So one…
The Worst Housing Crash Just Started
What’s up guys? It’s Graham here. So, the housing market has taken a rather unexpected turn in just the last few weeks. New reports are beginning to show some major cracks throughout some of the largest cities in America, with empty San Francisco office b…
How Bird Wings Work (Compared to Airplane Wings) - Smarter Every Day 62
[Music] Hey, it’s me D, and welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So, some of my favorite things to learn are those things that I’ve seen for several years, and I’ve made a lot of observations, and I kind of think I get it, you know? I mean, like really get …