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There are two indefinite articles in English: ‘a’ and ‘an’. They are used before a singular noun that has a plural form. ‘A’ is used before a consonant sound and ‘an’ is used before a vowel sound.  The sound is more important than the spelling; we say ‘an hour’ and ‘a bag’ because the sounds of the first letter are different.

Here are the answers to the exercise I gave you in my last post.

1) Lucy has  — dog.
Answer: a

2) Let’s sing  — song.
Answer: a

3) Emily needs  — new desk in her room.
Answer: a

4) I need  — blue pen.
Answer: a

5) Ben has — old bike.
Answer: an

6) Peter has — aunt in Berlin.
Answer: an

7) We listen to — English CD.
Answer: an

8) She has — exercise book in her school bag.
Answer: an

9) The speed of this car was 160 miles — hour.
Answer: an

10) They finished — unit.
Answer: a

‘A’ and ‘the’ are included in the 200 key words in the English language.  The question is why are they so important?  Please post a comment to this blog with the answer.

We’ve been looking at the definite article over the last few weeks.  The indefinite article is just as important, however, and has different rules.

For an overview go to the World Atlas of Structures online at http://wals.info/feature/description/38.

The interesting thing about the indefinite article is that it changes, depending on the pronunciation of the noun.  It could be ‘a’ or an.’

Try this exercise and decide whether it should be ‘a’ or an.’

1) Lucy has  — dog.

2) Let’s sing  — song.

3) Emily needs  — new desk in her room.

4) I need  — blue pen.

5) Ben has — old bike.

6) Peter has — aunt in Berlin.

7) We listen to — English CD.

8) She has — exercise book in her school bag.

9) The speed of this car was 160 miles — hour.

10) They finished — unit.

I’ll give you the answers next week and also give you a chance to explore the rules in more detail.

See you next week and don’t forget to check the schedule for my Grammarathon!

Have you ever wondered if learning on-line is good for you?

Do you think that learning on-line is as good as or better than learning in a classroom?

What about ‘blended learning’ where you learn on-line and face to face?

A recent 12 year study by the Department of Education in the USA has shown that learning on-line is not only effective but also better than traditional face to face teaching.

Barbara Means, the study’s lead author says:

“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that on-line learning today is not just better than nothing- it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction”

The study showed that only learning on-line only was better than only having face to face classes , but the best way to learn was a combination of face to face and on-line,  a blended learning  approach.

There were some very interesting key points like:
·  Students who took all or part of their class on-line performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.

· Instruction combining on-line and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely on-line instruction.

· On-line learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.

· Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for on-line learning

Click here to read the full report.

In other words if a student is studying at a local ESL school and comes to practice in English City every week they will perform better than students who online learn online or only learn face to face.

I’m still looking at the two hundred key words in English, but, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there’s still quite a bit more to say about the first word: ‘the.’ I wanted to close my discussion of ‘the’ with the answers to last week’s exercise and one final thought.

In my blog on geography and the zero article I gave you the following exercise:

Read this letter. Look at the ‘x’ and decide whether to use the definite article ‘the’ or not.

Hi Grammar Girl,

I arrived in x USA last Monday. We left x Rome, flew over x Alps and made a quick stop in x London. There we went shopping in x Harrods, visited x Tower of London and enjoyed a sunny afternoon in x Hyde Park.

On the following day we left for x New York. x time on board wasn’t boring as there were two films to watch on x monitor. x people on plane were all Italian. Before we landed at x JFK airport, we saw x Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Empire State Building. hotel I stayed in was on x corner of x 42nd Street and x 5th Avenue.

I don’t like hotels very much, but I didn’t have time to rent an apartment. Please say hello to Jessie and Chris.

Yours,

Shiv

Here are the answers:

I arrived in the USA last Monday. We left Rome, flew over the Alps and made a quick stop in London.

There we went shopping in Harrods, visited the Tower of London and enjoyed a sunny afternoon in Hyde Park. On the following day we left for New York. The time on board wasn’t boring as there were two films to watch on the monitor. The people on plane were all Italian.

Before we landed at JFK airport, we saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Empire State Building. The hotel I stayed in was on the corner of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. I don’t like hotels very much, but I didn’t have time to rent an apartment. Please say hello to Jessie and Chris. And my final thought on ‘the’ and the zero article is about how you learn it. The rules may seem vast and complex but you could try reading and observing its use in every day English.

Two weeks ago, I discussed the meaning of ‘the.’   For this week, I wanted to show you an excellent exercise I’d found on http://www.usingenglish.com.

Please do the exercise on http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/84.html because it highlights the fact that geographical nouns may use ‘the,’ depending on what they are.

After you’ve done that try the following:

Read this letter. Look at the ‘x’ and decide whether to use the definte article ‘the’ or not.

Hi Grammar Girl,

I arrived in x USA last Monday. We left x Rome, flew over x Alps and made a quick stop in x London. There we went shopping in x Harrods, visited x Tower of London and enjoyed a sunny afternoon in x Hyde Park. On the following day we left for x New York. x time on board wasn’t boring as there were two films to watch on x monitor. x people on plane were all Italian. Before we landed at x JFK airport, we saw x Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Empire State Building. hotel I stayed in was on x corner of x 42nd Street and x 5th Avenue. I don’t like hotels very much, but I didn’t have time to rent an apartment. Please say hello to Jessie and Chris.

Yours,

Shiv.

Answers will be next week.

See you soon,

Grammar Girl !

What do you think of art and techology? Do you think that it will change art forever?

I have found a great video from TED and it shows you how art can be be physically created by your body and displayed using technology.

The shapes the people create in the video are great fun. The voice recoginition is very accurate and fascinating and makes me think of what we will be able to do in Virtual Worlds in the future.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to speak in a virtual world and the text just appear like a subtitle underneath your avatar !

Well I hope you enjoy the video and it inspires you to make some art of your own !

I’d like to continue with my discussion of ‘the’ but I’ve moved to a new flat and I don’t have broadband at home yet. This means I can only write a very brief post this week from my blackberry.  Instead, I wanted to address a common request from my readers on how to learn English.

Learning English is like learning any language. You have a few familiar words that you’ve picked up from television or films. You may even have listened to some words in songs. What do you do now? Do you wait for a teacher to tell you what to do?

There is no easy answer but I’ll suggest a few tips:

In a blog post last year, I asked you to sing along to your favourite tune.

Keep reading.

Join online English forums.

Write letters to yourself.

Go to http://www.thefreedictionary.com and read their word for the day.

Have a good week !

Grammar Girl

This week I’m going to start the first in a series of blogs on the 200 key words in English.  These are called key words because they are the most commonly used or most important words in English.  These words were developed by Scott Thornbury.  Please see http://www.tefl.net/reviews/natural-grammar.htm

Today’s word is ‘the.’  The grammar word for it is the DEFINITE ARTICLE.  There is quite a bit I could say about ‘the’ because we use it in a number of different contexts.

To put it simply, the definite article ‘the’ is used to refer to a specific instance of the noun, often already mentioned in the context or easy to identify. Definite articles are slightly different from demonstratives (like ‘this’), which often indicate the location of nouns with respect to the speaker and audience.

* “Let us look for a good restaurant.”
* “What about the restaurant at which we ate last week?”
* “That restaurant was terrible. What about this one on the corner here?”

If you are wondering about the difference between fourteen hundred hours (14.00) and 2pm, then this is for you.

There are twenty four hours in a day.  In the world clock, http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/, you’ll see that times are written this way, from zero hundred hours (00.00) to twenty-three hundred hours (23.00).

There are other ways to talk about and write about the time.  The more commonly used format is am and pm.  Am refers to the time between midnight (00.00) and noon, or technically until 11.59.  Noon (12pm) to 11.59 pm is the afternoon.  Am and pm are abbreviations for Latin (ante-meridian and post-meridian).

Of course, it doesn’t end there.  What is the difference between two thirty and half-past two?  The answer is nothing.  They are both 2.30.  You also have two fifteen and quarter past two (2.15) and quarter-to-three or two forty-five (2.45).

You’ll find http://www.teachingtime.co.uk/ very useful because it explains the differences in more detail and gives you some practice.

Until next time …
- Grammar Girl.

We’re back to the subject of commonly-confused words and this week we’ve got three or possibly even four.

Poor is an adjective, normally meaning that the person described has little money. But it has a second meaning as well which is that something is not very good.  “This is a poor effort, Kingsbury!”

A pore, on the other hand, is a tiny opening, normally on skin. It’s pores that give you acne! It can also be used as a verb, meaning you’re studying something closely.  “David pored over his books when he was preparing for his exam.”

Finally, pour means to make flow, normally a liquid.  “Please would you pour the milk?” asked Jessie.

Don’t forget that the hands and feet of animals are often called paws!  If you are from London or the South-East of England, ‘paw’ might sound like ‘pore.’

If you are worried about which word is being used, listen to the rest of the sentence or the context.

See you soon !

Grammar Girl