- First,
I'd like to ask, do we have definite and indefinite articles in
Arabic?
Well,
the answer is Yes, we do. However, Articles in Arabic
are used in different ways than in English. This is why, most
of us, Arabic speakers, make mistakes, sometimes when we
use the Articles in English. Actually, the
problem is that we try to use Articles in English the same
way we do in Arabic, and this is why it doesn't work!
- So, here
are some tips:
- Never
think in Arabic when you are using English. The two languages
are extremely different in many ways.
- When
an English expression or an
idiom doesn't make sense to you, this means it
probably doesn't exist in our Arabic culture or
the culture of a learner, in general.
- Therefore,
learning about the culture of a language you are learning
is very important, since it can help you understand and
know more about the customs and the traditions of a nation.
- In our
case, we need to learn more about American English culture
in order to understand the way thoughts are expressed
in American English.
- The above
tips can make the learning process of a language easier
than ever. (Movies and songs can tell us more
about cultures).
|
Example
of countable nouns:
Rock,Table,
Book, Lab,Country,Thermometer, Desert,Computer, Anesthetic, Horse,Elephant.
- A
horse is a mammal.
- A
computer is a device.
- An
elephant is a mammal.
- An
anesthetic is a drug.
2.
When countable nouns are used in the plural form, they don’t
need an article.
Example:
- Horses
and elephants are mammals.
- Computers
are devices.
- Deserts
are dry regions.
- Anesthetics
are drugs.
- Definite article: (The)
1.
The Definite article,
the, is used when we need to talk
about or refer to something that we are all familair with.
For
example: The Earth, the sun, the White House.
The
concept is that people everywhere share similar basic information
about our planet, Earth and the White House; therefore, we use
, the, to coinfirm that we are refering to the planet where
we all live or to the White House where the President of the
US lives and works.
For
more illusteration, read this:
A
number of meetings were held in the White House, recently.
Now,
read this, and notice the difference:
You
can see that most of the houses, recently built in our area are
white. It must feel good to live in a white house, in a
hot country, like Kuwait.
E.g. The Earth is round.
However,
we don't need to use, the, with Jupitar, Mars, or Venus, since
we don't share enough information about them or becasue our level of
knowledge about these planets are different.
E.g.
Men from Mars and Woemn from Venus.
2.
We need to use, the, whenever we talk about or refer to parts
of the human body: heart, hand, brain, eyes, etc.. The concept
here is that when we refer to any
part of the human body we are actually talking about the same heart
that each person and not a particular human heart.
E.g.
The
human heart
is an organ that keeps up
the circulation of the blood in the body.
Notice
that, The human heart , the blood, and
the body refer to every human heart, blood and body
and not those belonging to one person.
Here
is another example:
b) The
arm usually has a hand attached to it. ( When we add The
beofre arm, we mean all human arms, and not a particular
arm).
3.
The is used before superlative nouns.
Example:
a) Jupiter
is the largest planet in our solar system.
b) The
Arabian gulf is the nearest sea to
Kuwait.
- Uncountable
Nouns: Water, Salt, Pepper, Sand, Air,Information
Uncountable
nouns have one form. They don't need indefinite articles,
a/an, to indicate singular forms, or the suffixes,
s /ies, at the end of a word
to indicate plural forms.
How
can we express singular forms for uncountable
nouns?
We
can express a singular
form for an uncountable
noun by using units of measurement.
Example:
a)
You should drink a
lot of water in summer. (Expressing plural form).
b) I would like to have a glass/bottle
of water, please. (Expressing singular form)
How
can we express pliral forms for uncountable
nouns?
We
can express a plural form for
an uncountable noun by using
certain expressions or quantifiers,
such as, a lot of, few, a few, a great deal of, several, some..etc..
Example:
c)
A computer is a device that is used for
saving a great deal of information. (Expressing
plural form).
d)
I
don’t have any piece of information about
the earthquake that occured in Japan, in July 2003. (Expressing singular
form).
|