ARTICLES [A, AN, THE] 33 ADVANCED RULES + Common Mistakes.- English Grammar

In this lesson we assume you know all the basics about articles but when to use A, An, The and no article can be problematic. Here we focus on the rules for intermediate and advanced level speakers. There are lots of them. During my research for this video I found 33 rules which I've presented here. The best thing to do is read, write, speak and listen so that you'll use the correct article instinctively. However it's good to have the rules as a reference especially in written English.
I hope you enjoy the video. Stay healthy.
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[@voxveritas333]

As a native English speaker I am amazed at the complexity of all these rules and forms. I appreciate the effort it must take for foreign language speakers to learn English. You deserve our applause indeed. We absorb all this grammar unconsciously as a child, but you all have to consciously adopt it, so kudos to you.

[@hopelessdigger]

Not necessarily. Well, if someone's tryna learn English by reading grammar books and using the so-called "vocabulary expanding" applications and websites, it is gonna take them hell a lot of time and effort. However, if one happened to have been exposed to the language for quite some time, they're gonna pull off most rules, tenses, and nuances instinctively. I, myself, am not a native speaker, and I still suck shit at English, but I can say that one time, I could use most tenses without knowing what "a tense" actually meant, or what their structures were. Idk, it just made sense to me. And to this day, I still don't know what structures different tenses have. Anyway, All this is to say, one only has to put in a lot of work at the first stages of learning a new language. Then, they HAVE TO immerse themselves in the world of that specific language. Like, they have to google everything, watch all KZbin vids, talk to most friends, and more in that language. That way, and only that way, they can ingrain said language with such devotion it flows with ease.

[@alexmangorove]

It's not that complex, it's only 2 articles. I see these comments often, but when native speakers of some other languages such as Japanese or Russian (my native language), learn what non-natives have to think about realize it's hell and they'd never try to learn if they didn't already know it😁

[@terkcarlo]

The most useful English learning video that I ever came across. Thanks

[@LetThemTalkTV]

You are a wise man.

[@jawadakhtar5397]

The most useful English learning video I have ever come across, thanks.

[@bulatturemuratov6947]

To the most creative, great teacher, my greet from Kazakstan! I'm 67 years old and for me is the pleasure to learn your English grammar. Good health and happiness to you!

[@uffa00001]

@@bulatturemuratov6947 ... is a pleasure ...

[@antoniapoultsaki9256]

Just a few additions. We use "the": -with groups of islands, eg. the Bahamas, the Cyclads -with names of cinemas, newspapers, sights eg. the Odeon, the Guardian, the Acropolis -with people's titles without saying their names, eg. the Queen, the President (but Queen Catherine, President Lincoln) -with some illnesses or omit it, eg. (the) measles, (the) mumps

[@kerbicz]

Articles have been an everlasting headache for me as an English language user. The problem is not which article should be used - that's quite clear - but whether any article is needed, in a given context. Your lesson made me feel a little bit less stupid about this question, thank you LTT!

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

I'm a native English (British) speaker and I didn't know there were so many rules. Just a few additions though. Uncountable nouns can be countable with food and drink when referring to a serving of something. For example instead of saying "a cup of coffee" or "two pints of beer", you can say "a coffee" or "two beers". Also "water" can be countable if referring to a source of water. For example "all the waters (rivers) run into the sea". Also some places use a combination of preposition and article to denote the person's relationship with the place. For example, She's at school - She's there as a student. She's in school - She's a student of a school but not necessarily there now. She's at the school - She's in the building but not as a student, also using the definite article the specific school is known to the listener, so maybe the school she works in or the one her children go to. She's at a school - She's in some school building that the listener is unfamiliar with. She's in (the) hospital - She's a patient undergoing treatment. She's at the hospital - She's in or around the building but not as a patient. She's in/at church - She's there worshiping. She's in/at a/the church - She's there visiting, sightseeing etc. She's in work - She has a job/She's employed. She's at work - She's there right now. These are general rules just from my experience as a native English speaker in southeast England. Maybe other speakers will understand these phrases differently or have something else to add.

[@jonathansgarden9128]

I'm an American and I've never heard these things explained properly before this video. I just understood them natively. This is great!

[@vjhjjjdgr]

yesvyes...natives didnt understsnd this problems

[@chetanarya2610]

Gandu

[@jamesmcinnis208]

@@vjhjjjdgr this problem OR these problems

[@keremkelleboz6959]

As a native speaker of a language with no articles (Turkish), articles are my favourite part of English. I feel like articles take away clunkiness while adding little complexity. As an example, in Turkish you cannot say ''this is a question, but not the question'' what you can say instead is ''this question is not the foremost among the questions''

[@TheMaverickanupam]

As an upper-intermediate ESL speaker, I have nightmares about articles and they are the greatest factor in slowing down my speech.

[@katjusza999]

you are so hilarious and bubbly personality, I like the warm-up at the start of each video the most, big up teacher !

[@stoicsamson2940]

When I started learning English, I thought that articles (or should have I said "THE ARTICLES" ?) is the easiest part of it. Years past, I learnt advanced topics in maths such as complex calculus, higher dimensial vectors and so on. Yes I'm going to be watching this video tens of times again and again. Massive thanks to the teacher

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Massive thanks for your comment.

[@sawanbirla1629]

Articles or the Articles??? Pls explain

[@James-ix7xd]

@@sawanbirla1629 Just Articles is fine

[@eff9266]

btt why )

[@Amy-daria]

As a foreigner, this is the trickiest part of the English grammar, at least to me. Your explanation is very helpful. I will come back to it again for sure. Thank you so much!

[@edgarrodriguez8973]

Brilliant, sheer and quite to the point. Thanks teacher Gideon for your great job in systemizing advanced grammar hurdles and the way to circumvent them. Greetings from Bogotá Colombia

[@gustavoeduardodelpino1303]

I'm from Argentina and Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us..

[@explorer9239]

Top of the top advice. Many thanks!

[@elmaroque]

You’re a great teacher, thank you very much!

[@scotgbs8026]

For me, the article is the most difficult grammar subject to grasp of all. The are so many rules around the article, the rules are messy and sometimes can be very confusing. But I have to say this is one of the best videos on this grammar subject I have watched so far. I have repeatedly watched some sections of this video on the rules that I find difficult to understand, such as "time" vs "the time", "TV" vs "the TV", "school" vs "the school", how to use "the" when we talk about a body part comes into contact with an outside object.

[@concretejungle9608]

After having lived in New York for 10 years I’m past the point of learning articles in English , but boy do I enjoy this guy’s videos and his pronunciation ! He’s is not only the best English teacher I’ve found on or off line, but also such a brilliant example of how an educational video content can be so much fun. My mom has just started leaning English and I can’t wait to introduce her to this amazing channel once she is able to understand and follow the teacher .

[@justwannachatshit]

Glad you liked the video, but maybe you're not completely past the point of learning articles... "but also such a brilliant example of how a̶n̶ educational video content can be so much fun." The an is not necessary 😅 Every day's a school day 😊

[@enriquebonifacino9939]

Great educational video! Thank you.

[@basilep2148]

Hi Gideon, what a pleasure to see you again ! You're a maverick teacher and a terrific pedagogue. Thank you for your time and the quality of your lessons as well as the additionnal tips such as the way to peel a banana or filter water to avoid the amount of plastic bottles. You've been our little sunshine all along this lockdown ! 😊

[@mattras9259]

Thank you for this lesson. I often make mistakes with the articles. Keep making videos!! 😊

[@sevenofnine1915]

Wow, the most valuable moment for me was Gideons little mistake at 09:13. THANK YOU so much for not cutting it out. It just shows us that even brilliant native speakers of English make mistakes. I find it so uplifting to see, because I tend to beat myself up about mistakes I think I shouldn't be making anymore. So, thank you again for reminding us that we're all human and that we should cut ourselves some slack

[@Kehich]

It's good to re-watch any of Gideon's videos once in a while, especially the video I'm watching now!

[@ashutoshnanda683]

Thank you teacher for giving deep analysis of articles.I never knew this before.

[@545lemonde3]

Un grand merci !!

[@sachio8136]

Nobody ever explained it so clear as you did!

[@yukochiwata2937]

Welcome back, Gideon. So happy to see you again. I was following your latest video this afternoon and watched through all 33 rules and took notes. I spent over an hour and a half. It was a great pleasure and I am now more confident , I hope ! , about the articles. Many thanks.

[@erasmovargas4656]

Excelente!

[@lucianomillaqueo4163]

Hello let them talk! My name is Luciano and I am from Buenos Aires-Argentina. All i want to say is THANK YOU SR. This is the best channel to all english students...I've been watching your lessons for months and I just fell in love with your way to teach english. I want to England many times since 2015,and since then I've been collecting many questions that anyone could answer me until now. Looking forward to see more lessons. Thank you very much for it. 🇦🇷❤🇬🇧

[@RamMohan-fh9ly]

This series of English learning videos are really top class; great teachers who explains everything meticulously. Thanks,

[@amandakuo4590]

THIS IS RATHER THAN USEFUL!!! I studied the knowledge of articles in an advanced grammar book but this is way much easy to remember. thank you

[@dudablack2426]

Hi Gideon! Thanks once again for this class, and the countable and uncountable examples! Love it. Thanks God English does not differentiate male and female as many latin languages do... all the best, stay safe!!

[@adriannuske]

Thank you. Hello France!... Wonderful videos! the amount of information you put into each video makes me wonder why are there others that need to ramble to reach the 10 minutes mark! If you know... you know! Much appreciated, congratulations and thank you again!

[@kikoissa]

This one is an essential class!

[@causilvestrini7000]

Weee I was missing your videos these last days. This is a great one, I'll watch it again and take notes :-D Thank you! Greetings from Argentina.

[@user-bp3xn7gq2b]

Thank you!!!

[@geaninaalecu4567]

I love you! Thank you very much!

[@ibrahimabah2628]

Thank you so much.

[@yuyuyuyuyuyu20]

thank you so very much. loved the video

[@gabrielepoggi1079]

This is THE lesson I have been waiting for a long time. Excellent job, as ever and thanks a million! G.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thank you for your comment.

[@oleksandrtykhonovsky8680]

Thank you for yet another great video, they always make my day.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

The pleasure is mine.

[@rosabrasil4893]

Thank you so much for this great class. ❤ I've saved it as I must watch it again and again and again. I'm a sort of slow learner. Bloody hell!

[@idemchenko-js]

I need a whole day to go through all the points and practice them all. But it is a good one!

[@fabianarolando9782]

You are the best !!!

[@joelmasamba6762]

Oh my gosh!!!! My amazing teacher keep up the good work!!!! 🎉 I've been learning more from you

[@jerryfreemann3490]

this a best video to learning grammar, I know such much from it, I has even teached my student's a yesterday on it and the all them was happy very many . thanks you very mach LetThemTalkTeaVee

[@ihavenoname6724]

This video is a treasure trove of good advice

[@educationversionpaathshala]

Very nice explanation of the article

[@CELINE0355]

Thank you so much dear Teacher for great grammar revision!I was looking forward to enjoying another of your nice videos!Have a peaceful,healthy weekend!🤗

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Many thanks I hope you found it useful

[@marikoabroad]

As Japanese, articles are always a challenge.😉 love your content!Keep up the good work, thank you

[@michelevicario5681]

Loved that quote from The Smiths.

[@davantlag2000]

I discovered your videos and frankly...they are awesome! Well done! and thank you so much for your talent and wit

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I just discovered your comment. You are awesome. Best wishes.

[@lamazeitoun7915]

I genuinely love the material given in this page. Thank you ❤️🙏🏼

[@LetThemTalkTV]

The pleasure is mine.

[@evelynakoublova5610]

Dear Gideon, I am so happy to follow your lessons. It is always extremely, usefull. This lesson about articles was big surprise for me. Thank you!

[@tomthekhmerbreed9166]

I can't help laughing at his personality while watching his videos. He's funny and knowledgeful! I really like him! Many English learners always get confused about using these articles (a, an and the) eventhough they are at an advanced level.

[@amanialzhrani4811]

Thank you so much for sharing such informative content. I always get confused with using articles especially when no article is needed! I guess that video has clarified a lot of my doubts. Thank you again, I really appreciate your efforts.

[@hebreobiblico5070]

Beautiful! I teach English every day for a living and I'm definitely going to recur to your superb summary when in need. And BTW, yes, the name of my country used to be Argentine or THE Argentine Republic a few decades ago, though nowadays people in general refer to it as Argentina. Thank you, Gideon!

[@abbasroshan4208]

Thanks for the information provided here, but I still didn't quite get it all. So I need to watch this several times. But the pieces of information you are giving us here are very useful! Thanks a lot again!

[@bilgriffin]

I started watching your videos to try to sound British in my Doctor Who videos and I have recommended your videos to an Egyptian friend who wants to improve his English!

[@lunalovegoodthebudgie1492]

wow thank you so much!!! This was as comprehensive as the chapter from Michael Swan's book! I lived in the UK for 14 years (not anymore though), but I still have problems with articles. The problem is sometimes I am second-guessing myself :( Especially after I did my CELTA. But knowing the rules will probably be very beneficial!

[@veenanarwani761]

I am surprised how many viewers are appreciating you. To be honest , I also feel you are worth it. I am an Indian learner. 🙏

[@user-op7ug7kd9q]

you are awesome thanks.

[@LaminSowe-ys6tx]

Your lesson is quite educative!

[@jooheepaik811]

Thank you very much! Your explination was so helpful. You should write a grammar book based on all your lectures on KZbin. Or have you already...?😄

[@lexkasper5354]

You are awesome! I just love the examples you give. Not sure if it's appropriate, but I used to like a song called Cryin'. That one started with "There was A time, when I was so broken hearted" I think that's one interesting use of "a time" in addition to rule 33.

[@infocan-immsolutions4753]

Thank you for clarifying A, An and THE...As an Urdu speaker from Pakistan and now in Canada, it was an amazing session.

[@solea59]

I really enjoy it ...and I'm English!

[@akramsaeed5149]

Ramadan Mubarak teacher.Thank you so much.

[@muriloleite7194]

Thank you

[@samyagdrsti]

Hello back from Argentina! I'm sure I must've said "the advice" more than once, I always forget that one. You're my favourite English teacher, by far.

[@CC-qg6zl]

You can, e.g. the advice she gave me was so useful. Thanks for the advice. Never 'a' or advices. Can I give you a piece of ...(🙏say "cake"!😉) ...advice.

[@djayers]

I'm northern, but will happily accept your English as the best. Thank you. I live in Italy, have a doctor friend who wants to learn, engages with your stuff. I might use the word 'clean' English, the myth of accent-free. You nail it. Explanations, I'm learning. Faarking cant. (Go on, do one on northern, Sheffield, thee thou, dee daa).

[@aatali2001]

Hello Gideon, Thanks for another nice lesson. Articles are too difficult for me to understand I have been trying to learn for many years and watched many videos, read many times but looks like this time I nailed it. Thanks again❤

[@elifarmer3815]

I'm American and I find this fascinating

[@Sanjay-hy1pz]

Nice tutorial video

[@marias.p.1297]

Could you also explain the exceptions of using will in the 'if' phrase of the conditionals and mixed conditionals?

[@mohammedelfarra3900]

Simple but vital👌🍸 Cheers

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, it is thanks

[@italorangel1652]

I used to say those words in plural before watching your video . Thanks for the lesson :)

[@jeczybula]

Good video, this is a tricky and important topic, thanks!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

It is tricky, I hope this helps. Thanks

[@amalahmed5569]

Fantastic

[@patricowen-meehan4210]

This has been useful

[@nena6usheva29]

Thank you for all your videos. Could you please make a Quiz-Video on this topic,i mean a,the or no article. Most of us know this phenomenon: you never repeat a mistake you've already made in a test. Your videos are both amusing and effektive.

[@oksanadaudova]

It’s a great video!!! Thank you

[@LetThemTalkTV]

A great comment. Thanks

[@lorenasmartevents5354]

Wow, this has been te best explanation on the use of indef. Articles A.. AN, and the use OF DEF. ARTICLE THE,... Bravo . If your explanations were chefs, I'd give you 5 MICHELIN STARS!!!! THANKS FOR SHARING! BY THE WAY. I'M POLA.

[@rrbkumar7385]

Wowwww, I'm new subscriber , thank you for wonderful explanation. 😘 Thank you 🙏❤️

[@treblu22]

Thank you very much for this video. For people who dont have articles in their national language (like me) its quite a challenge to master them. Im not even half the way. QUITE awesome video, MATE (trying to be more British:).

[@user-tk3bp8hx1n]

Thank you Gigeon! Like as always👍

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thanks as always.

[@maghdean]

Having been learning English for 30+ years now (most of my life that is), I still find this topic one of the most difficult ones. Thank you. Oh, and greetings from Ukraine (good to see the British had started shedding "the" before the name of my country before this video was produced).

[@mariacebrecos303]

Many years ago I listened to a Beatles song called "Eight days a week". This way I learned automatically how to say this sentence.

[@Miney-ThuyLam.]

You are very good at English

[@lvlonde]

You are brilliant.. I like you so much.. thank you..!!💐 My question is where to use definite or indefinite articles when we have two nouns connected to each other with prepositions.. like traffic in downtown or backyard of house Etc..

[@kerrylosi1595]

Hi Gideon. You crack me up like a walnut. 🤣 As an English speaker, I understand all your humour and I share your channel with my french friends but probably they won’t understand your tongue in cheek humour. 😂 love all your episodes. Cheers from Down Under. 😘

[@glynette6570]

I’m a native English speaker and have taught English as a second language. I really enjoy your videos.

[@annabbott7242]

Gideon, I absolutely adore your videos. Having to explain the rules of English grammar to my Spanish conversation partners is really testing my memory banks, despite my formal education, so you can imagine my delight at discovering your channel. However, I don't think you can have realised that at approx 2:26 on this video you say that A is a definite article. I apologise if I misheard you ( though I have checked a couple of times) or if someone else has already commented on it. I still think your lessons are the best. Massive thanks!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Many thanks. Re:2:26 it's possible I misspoke. The camera, the lights confuse me sometimes.

[@rafaelmardanov4490]

Even though it's been more than 2 years for those who just now came across this video (like me) your comment is a relief. I immediately went to the comment section just to make sure that I didn't mishear that. Thanks a lot!) And thanks a bunch to Gideon as well!

[@RizwanAhmedKhan-et7gu]

You have a wonderful way of teaching I am from Pakistan and teach IELTS, PTE, OEY, TOEFL and other English language testing courses Plz create videos on IELTS sharing some perfectly practical strategies, which should work for even basic English learners

[@inchig1]

wow! English lit up with new colors.

[@rql7397]

Didn't know that one about the preposition before something touching a part of your body, thanks:-)

[@ambience6769]

Extremely helpful to me, a comprehensive guide to a complete understanding. It'd be much more helpful if you could digitalize this lecture into a downloadable PDF version. Thank you so much sir!

[@SiwakSerg]

Thank you for the most explicit clarification to this crooked topic that tortured me for all the time I spent on improving my English. I have a question though. One may say: "I need a pen to write." Would it be possible to reply to this request by giving a pencil to the speaker? The same question for the definite article: "I need the pen to write." Thank you a lot again!

[@CC-qg6zl]

How very refreshing that the poster comments on comments. SUBSCRIBED

[@andriusbaltuska2926]

Thanks for the informative lesson, Gideon. I was surprised that as an English instructor you did not use the pronunciation /ˈiːvrɪst/, as in Sir George Everest’s name, when giving an example with Mt. Everest. Are the British fine nowadays with the mangled pronunciation? Re. your example with article-free languages: I would not include Japanese on the list. In Japanese, there are post-particles WA and GA that change from one to another similarly to the switch from ‘a’ to ‘the’ once the object in a sentence has been defined by an earlier mention.

[@fefagundes]

Incredibly useful lesson! Thank you Gideon! Another uncountable noun I used incorrectly is "evidence" - I said evidences... And I used to say British people, too. Now I know better! :) Ps: I find the way you pronounce "theatre" very interesting..

[@KimKoomKum]

Great video, mate! I would recommend that you do another video covering the very common subject-verb disagreement (full or partial) when a seemingly plural noun takes the indefinite article before an adjective. This one is a nightmare for non-native speakers, and most native speakers-among them English teachers-cannot explain the logic behind this structure. Examples below: -a good fifty miles, -a wonderful two weeks, -a solid six months, -A great many people were arrested during that turbulent period. Often enough, it’s not a fully fledged S-V disagreement, merely a confusing phrase. In the last sentence though, it actually develops into an S-V disagreement: either the noun is plural and the verb form is correct, but then the article is wrong... or the whole noun phrase can be treated as a singular entity (hence the indefinite article), but then the verb form has to be singular, too, and it isn’t. From my experience, explaining this one in class can be quite testing. In addition, structures like “there are ‘a’ number of viable solutions to this problem” pose a similar sort of challenge to learners and teachers alike.

[@unpiccolocuore]

I can't say anything about the last (one?) but for first three, you need to think them as a group a wonderful "two weeks" just as if you said, to be honest, I'm not sure the fourth one is true or not. It's sounds weird to me. Good chance(s? 😄) for both of us. For "a number of", in that phrase, "a number of" is like "a group of" or "some". Don't think it as singular name in this meaning. It's like family or forest.

[@newman4938]

Also in sentences like "He is a most wonderful man.", you don't use 'the' because the 'most' is just for emphasis and not for making 'wonderful' superlative.

[@unpiccolocuore]

@@newman4938 I don't think it's a grammatically true sentence.

[@berenikasienkiewicz7653]

@@unpiccolocuore It is correct. The meaning of "most" in this case is "very" , and not the superlative form of "wonderful".

[@unpiccolocuore]

@@berenikasienkiewicz7653 I was talking about the "a" in the sentence. It should've been "the most...". Not because of superlative but the person we talked about is not anybody but the one we know, so he. Besides using most in superlative is also for emphasis, the goal of superlative form is already this, so there is no anything like most but no superlative. If there was wanted to use most in place of very, then very should have been used, not most because it isn't true. Very and most aren't the same thing, nor similar clearly. I mean, even most is the superlative form of more, that's why it's used in the superlative sentences where the word we want to emphasise cannot take any new form to be a superlative.