Hello, and welcome to this updated, rewritten and reworked article about articles that originally had a home of its own on a blog. But now it is here, in its new home on this website, and we have to say that it is very happy now that it has joined a few friends. 

 

This article is a little different because it is set out like a course, designed for you to read and take notes over a few sessions and not to read in one go.

 

We are going to teach you the basics and more.

 

Articles are easy to understand at a basic level: it’s when we come out of that basic level when the use of a, an and the becomes not quite so clear.

 

As mentioned, this article has been set up in the style of a self-study course. There will be several sections to get through, and each section will include some exercises to check your comprehension.

 

So that is the introduction completed. Click below (where it says NEXT) to get a basic introduction of what you are about to study, or if you think it would be a waste of time (bad idea!) then just click to one of the sections of the course below.

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1. Nouns and noun phrases

2. Determiners

3. A and AN, consonants and vowels

4. THE and zero articles

5. Some more about A and AN

6. Some more about THE

7. THE with groups of things and people

8. THE with types and groups of things

9. Names

10. More examples with zero articles

11. How do you pronounce A and THE?