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The text below illustrates the use of articles. If you take a look at the highlighted nouns, have a think about the reasons for the usage of a/an, the or no article before I give you the explanations.
I work as an accountant for BB Enterprises. I live in a large apartment in Kuala Lumpur. The apartment is next to the River Klang on Jalan Gemilang. Fortunately, my wife owns the Plaza Hotel in central KL, so I eat dinner there every night. I visit my brother in hospital regularly since he recently fell ill. I enjoy reading The Star every morning and my personal motto is “Love solves all problems”.
The rules are quite complex and any summary here represents a simplification. However, these guidelines should help you in editing your written work. Leaving out articles will rarely cause misunderstandings, but it can leave a negative impression on the reader.
Anyway, here is a summary of some of the rules from the text above:-
- An accountant-we use a/an when referring to jobs/professions
- BB Enterprises-we usually omit an article when referring to companies
- a large apartment- we use a/an when we mention something for the first time
- Kuala Lumpur-there is no article before towns, most countries and continents
- the apartment-we use the when both reader and writer know what we are referring to. (in this case, the apartment mentioned in 3.)
- the River Klang-we use the for rivers.
- Jalan Gemilang-there is no article for roads.
- The Plaza Hotel-we use the for hotels
- eat dinner-we usually don’t use an article before meals
- at night/in hospital -no article in some expressions after a preposition. Other examples include by bicycle, on foot and in class
- The Star-newspapers take the definite article
- Love is-no article required where abstract nouns are used in a general sense
Now have a look at the next few examples drawn from a business report and insert the correct article.
(1 ) recent article in (2) Times described (3)Kleinham’s disastrous decline in profits in (4)Europe. (5) article highlighted its attempt to launch (6) new product in (7) Bulgaria. In addition, (8) CEO of Kleinham recently resigned due to ill health.
1)a 2)The 3)no article 4) no article 5) the 6) a 7) no article 8) the.
*Note that number 8 uses the, because there is only one CEO of a company. Other uses of this would be the world and the Pope.
Although this area is tricky, one should be grateful that there are no gender articles in English as there are in other European languages. For example, Spanish has four articles to contend with.
Guy Perring is Director, Professional Development Unit (PDU), at the British Council Malaysia. The PDU offers a wide range of learning opportunities from management and communication skills training to developing English skills. Contact the British Council in Kuala Lumpur at T: 03 - 2723 7900 or Penang at T: 04 - 263 0330 or visit www.britishcouncil.org.my.
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