English Grammar: Article

What is article?

• Article is word used before a noun (or adjective) to denote whether the noun is specific or not.
• A, an and the are articles.

There are two types of articles:
1) Indefinite Article

• Indefinite articles are used for non-specific nouns.
• "a" and "an" are indefinite articles.
• Article "a" is used before a countable noun that starts with a consonant sound. 
• Examples: a chair, a lamp, a month, a university, a camera, a car
• Example sentence: I want to buy a computer.
• In this sentence, we find the article "a". It shows us that the speaker does not need a specific computer. He can have any computer.

• Article "an" is used before a countable noun that starts with a vowel sound (any of these sounds: 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o' or 'u')
• Examples: an apple, an umbrella, an hour, an ambulance, an event
• Example sentence: I want to eat an orange.
• In this sentence, we find the article "an". It shows us that the speaker does not need a specific orange. He can have any orange.

2) Definite Article

• Definite articles are used for specific nouns.
• Example: I want to eat the red apple.
• In this sentence, we find the article "the" showing us that the speaker wants a specific apple, the red apple, not any others.
• "the" is a definite article.
• The definite article "the" is used to refer to
1. a particular item that can be in the singular or plural form
• The bicycle I lost was a present from my uncle. (singular form)
• The cows in the field belong to Encik Abu Bakar. (plural form)
2. something which is one of a kind
• The sun rises in the east.
• Satellite 110 circled around the earth ten times.
3. specific places such as buildings, seas, oceans and rivers
• The Red Sea is the saltiest ocean in the world.
• Yesterday evening, fire broke out at the Saga Shopping Complex.

Here is some exercises for this topic.

Article - Exercises from IMSHA LEARNING

Extra notes:

Those very young students would definitely enjoy this video below. I believe "Article" does sound fancy to them (because I myself don't know just what is the implicit reason of the naming behind the "article"), so video is one of many ways to make this topic to be less technical. With catchy music and colorful images and words, students will be having fun learning this topic. Educators nowadays really need to be creative in order to get students engaged in the lessons.

Reference:

Wai, K. M., Munisamy, S. M. S., & Naidu, S. (2016). GUSTO! Grammar Workout.  MBP Publications: Selangor.