Real ESL

This week I’m going to give you little exercises to practice using articles. It is one of the most important parts of English grammar that you must learn. You may think learning how to use articles is a waste of time because people understand you when you don’t use them. However, people will think your English is much worse than it is if you don’t use them correctly. Maybe your vocabulary is very advanced, but if you still make mistakes when using articles, people will think you are a beginner. It is one of the most basic parts of English grammar.

So, let’s start from the beginning. I will only talk about putting articles in front of a singular countable noun right now.

The first time you talk about a thing, you use “a” or “an”. Use “an” in front of a word that starts with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).
(I saw a lion yesterday.)

The second time you talk about the thing, you use “the”.
(The lion was licking a bone.)
(The bone didn’t have any meat on it.)

Even in the explanation, I say “a thing” first and then “the thing”. In the example, I say “a lion” first and then “the lion” and “a bone” first and then “the bone”.

I want you to find a children’s book, a preschool book if you can, one for really small children. Look at the articles. Now write a very basic children’s story, using articles. You can start with your own sentence or “I saw a lion yesterday.”

I’d love to see the stories you write in the comments.