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Here, spring has finally arrived and we've had the first few warm days of the new season. Everyone seems much more cheerful. All of us in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Learning English office had a bit more of a spring in our step when we come into the office this morning.

I bike to work most days and today was the first day I didn't need my gloves or jacket. The trip along the canal towpath was a real delight in the spring-time sunshine. Fingers crossed the good weather is here to stay! But since this is Britain it could be rainy and cold tomorrow - or even later today, knowing my luck!

Today I thought we'd look at articles (that's 'the', 'a' and 'an'). Actually, I hope this topic will be of interest to some of our audience too (Negee in particular asked about some advice on using articles).

Articles
There are a lot of rules about using these three little words (no, not 'I love you' but 'the', 'a' and 'an'). Today we'll look at five of the rules:

Rule 1
When we introduce a new topic or talk about something for the first time in a conversation or a piece of writing, we tend to use 'a' or 'an'. For example:

a. I'm going to look at a house later today.

b. She's got a car and a bike.

c. Joe needs a pen. Can he borrow yours?

Rule 2
When we refer to something that's been mentioned before, we tend to use 'the'. If the conversations from (a - c) above were continued, they might go like this:

d. I really liked the house and I'm thinking about renting it.

e. The car is red and the bike is green.

f. Did you get the pen for me? Thanks. Glad you got the black one and not the red one. I don't like writing in red.

Here are some sentence from your blog where you use the indefinite article ('a' or 'an') correctly. In all of these examples you're referring to something for the first time.

'Khun' is a polite and common word. (You hadn't mentioned this term before).

Somebody wants to sell and waits for a buyer. (This is the first time that a buyer has been mentioned).

I'm just waiting for Khun Nuala buy me a lovely small apartment. (This is the first time an apartment has been mentioned)

And here are some sentences where you used the definite article 'the' correctly. In all these examples, we both know what you're talking about because it's been mentioned before (either in your blog or in a previous one).

Thank you for the useful homework. (I'd talked about giving you homework before so we both knew which homework you were referring to).

If you want to lease your house, just list it with the agency. (You'd mentioned your agency before so we know which agency you're talking about).

The global recession makes people afraid. (I'd already asked you about the recession - and there's only one of them going on just now - so we both know which recession you're talking about).

Rule 3
If there's only one of something, we use 'the', rather than 'a' or 'an'. So for example, we talk about:

the White House

the moon

the Alps

Rule 4
We don't use any article when we're talking about things or people in general. So for example, when we're referring to all things, we don't say:

The mice like the cats.

She loves the poetry.

The rice is very expensive at this time of year.

Instead we say:

Mice like cats.

She loves poetry.

Rice is very expensive at this time of year.

Rule 5
We use 'a' or 'an' to talk about jobs (not 'the' or no article), so we don't say:

She teacher.

What do I do? I'm the sales assistant in Harrods department store. (There are lots of sales assistants in Harrods).

Instead, we say:

She's a teacher.

What do I do? I'm a sales assistant.

Incidentally, we also use the expression I'm a / I'm an to talk about our jobs, rather than saying My job's a. So I'd say I'm a writer, not My job's a writer.

So here's today's homework task. Here are a few sentences from your blog. Your task is to decide if they're right or wrong. If they're right, you just have to write 'correct' next to them. If they're wrong, you have to re-write them correctly, and that might include putting in as well as taking out articles. I hope you don't mind that I've edited your sentences a bit but I just want you to concentrate on the articles here, nothing else.

I've given you a clue in brackets at the end of each sentence to tell you what rule or rules you should be thinking about and I'll give you one more clue before you start - two of these sentences are correct:

1. We use 'Khun' as the polite title. (rule 1 and rule 2)

2. I work as the agent between the buyer and seller. (rule 5 and rule 2)

3 I just want to save the energy and save the world. (rule 4 and rule 3)

4. My office is the central place for people who want to do any property business. (rule 2)

5 The global recession makes people afraid to do the business. (rule 3 and rule 4)

6. I'm the property consultant. (rule 5)

7. I love flowers. (rule 4).

That's all for now.

All the best,

Nuala

Vocabulary
addicted - if you are addicted to something, you can't live without it. We often talk about people being addicted to drugs, for example.
a spring in our step - set expression - used to talk about feeling cheerful
the canal towpath - the pavement for walking or bike riding bikes at the side of canal