Search results for 'tag:Countable nouns tag:Consonants' matching tags 'Countable nouns' and 'Consonants'

Re: two questions on articles

Clive — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 00:51:31 GMT

Hi,

I have one more question on No. 2, what would you do if the list contains a list of countable nouns with a mix of vowel initial sounds and consonant initial sounds and thus, engender a possible article consistency problem? Could I just put the article "a" in front of the word "planner" and do away with all other articles for the rest of the words listed?

The terms/words like a planner, an??? agenda, a schedule, timetable, to-do-list, and checklist are ... Generally, I'd be inclined to put an article in front of each item in such a case, eg for a shopping list. But the above example is not really a list of items, it's a list of words, so I don't think you necessarily have to have any articles at all.

The terms/words like planner, agenda, schedule, timetable, to-do-list, and checklist are ...

I am sorry but this just came up, what is this word "to-do-list"? I know what that is but is this some kind of idiomatic phrase? Yes, it's an informal name for a list of things that you have to do. Just say 'a to-do-list'.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Singular & plural words

JoeTotale — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 23:50:40 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

I am a Chinese and English is not my native language.

A countable noun ends with "f" or "fe" when convering to plural ...... PLUS ves but drop f or fe

Can anyone tell me why the plural for giraffe is giraffes and not change to ves. Is there any rules to define when to add "s" and when to change to "ves". Thank you for your help.

V is nothing more than a voiced F; "-ves" means that you voice the F at the end of the word. In English, we make an unvoiced final sound longer than its voiced equivalent. Compare "roofs" and "rooves": in the second, the vowel is much longer than in the first. We often use vowel length to indicate whether the final consonant is voiced or unvoiced, and the opposite is true in writing. "Girraves" would be pronounced differently than "giraffes"; the A sound would lengthen and the fs/vs would reduce. As it is, the A sound is short comparative to the "ffes".

I'm sorry if this is too technical; I don't know how to explain it otherwise.

Re: Pls correct my translation homework

abbie1948 — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 12:57:21 GMT

Hi Lyn,

Here is one of my posts from a previous thread on the topic of articles. It might help.

Posted: 03-30-2005 12:26 PM

The correct use of articles is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult points of English grammar, so don't be despondant Ali; mistakes don't usually matter too much, as you will still be understood.

First, we don't usually use an article with plural or uncountable nouns. e.g. "there are lots of fish in the sea" NOT "Lots of the fish in the sea". "I love cats" NOT "I love the cats".

"The" is a definite article, as Jazz says. We use it for the following:

* to refer to something which has already been mentioned

"Ali posted a question to English Forum; THE question was about articles."

*when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

"Have you done the housework?"

* when we are speaking about a particular person or object
"The man over there is a famous film actor."

* objects which are regarded as unique
"The sun" "the moon" "the sea" "The world"

* with adjectives which refer to a whole group of people
"The English" "The Americans"

* names of geographical areas
"The Indian Ocean" "the Sahara Desert"

and finally
* with groups of years
"the seventies" "the 1800's"

a/an are indefinite articles.

We use 'a' when the word which follows begins with a consonant. (i.e. any letter whch is not a vowel),
"a book" "a film"

We also use 'a' in front of a word which begins with vowels which sound like a consonant (e.g. 'u' & 'eu' sound like 'y', so we say "a university", "a euphoric experience"

We use 'an' when the word which follows begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).

"an apple" "an exciting time"

As Jazz says, sometimes 'h' isa silent letter, i.e. we don't pronounce it, and we use 'an' in front of these words. I'm afraid these just have to be learned, but there aren't many of them. (e.g. "an hour" "an honest boy" "an hotel".)

Indefinite articles are used:

* When we talk about something for the first time.
"lets go to see a film"

* when we talk about particular groups of people (don't confuse this with the groups mentioned above)

e.g.
*jobs "a doctor"
*nationalities "an Englishwoman",
*religions " a Muslim"
*musical instruments "a piano" (but, if we are describing an action we say "he is playing THE piano", because we are speaking about one particular piano)
*names of days "I go to town on a Monday"
*with numbers "a hundred pounds" "a thousand and one uses"
*when we talk about one particular thing or person "she has a beautiful silver bracelet", " a thief stole it"

Ok - that's a fairly long explanation! Now how about some practice? Go to this site

http://a4esl.org/

Click on English grammar quizes, easy, then look at level 2 "Articles". You will find some exercises there to help you.

Re: Hello

abbie1948 — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 12:26:54 GMT

An excellent reply, Jazz. I hope you won't mind if I expand on it a little.

The correct use of articles is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult points of English grammar, so don't be despondant Ali; mistakes don't usually matter too much, as you will still be understood.

First, we don't usually use an article with plural or uncountable nouns. e.g. "there are lots of fish in the sea" NOT "Lots of the fish in the sea". "I love cats" NOT "I love the cats".

"The" is a definite article, as Jazz says. We use it for the following:

* to refer to something which has already been mentioned

"Ali posted a question to English Forum; THE question was about articles."

*when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

"Have you done the housework?"

* when we are speaking about a particular person or object
"The man over there is a famous film actor."

* objects which are regarded as unique
"The sun" "the moon" "the sea" "The world"

* with adjectives which refer to a whole group of people
"The English" "The Americans"

* names of geographical areas
"The Indian Ocean" "the Sahara Desert"

and finally
* with groups of years
"the seventies" "the 1800's"

a/an are indefinite articles.

We use 'a' when the word which follows begins with a consonant. (i.e. any letter whch is not a vowel),
"a book" "a film"

We also use 'a' in front of a word which begins with vowels which sound like a consonant (e.g. 'u' & 'eu' sound like 'y', so we say "a university", "a euphoric experience"

We use 'an' when the word which follows begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).

"an apple" "an exciting time"

As Jazz says, sometimes 'h' isa silent letter, i.e. we don't pronounce it, and we use 'an' in front of these words. I'm afraid these just have to be learned, but there aren't many of them. (e.g. "an hour" "an honest boy" "an hotel".)

Indefinite articles are used:

* When we talk about something for the first time.
"lets go to see a film"

* when we talk about particular groups of people (don't confuse this with the groups mentioned above)

e.g.
*jobs "a doctor"
*nationalities "an Englishwoman",
*religions " a Muslim"
*musical instruments "a piano" (but, if we are describing an action we say "he is playing THE piano", because we are speaking about one particular piano)
*names of days "I go to town on a Monday"
*with numbers "a hundred pounds" "a thousand and one uses"
*when we talk about one particular thing or person "she has a beautiful silver bracelet", " a thief stole it"

Ok - that's a fairly long explanation! Now how about some practice? Go to this site

http://a4esl.org/

Click on English grammar quizes, easy, then look at level 2 "Articles". You will find some exercises there to help you.

Re: Singular & plural words

unforgetta2000 — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:59:09 GMT

we can divide nouns into two groups;
1- countable
2- uncountable
we cant make plural uncountable nouns, e.g. water,milk etc..
when we look at countable we see there are four rules to make them plural;
1-s
2-es
3-ies
4-ves
a countable noun ends with ;s,ss,sh,ch,x,o PLUS es: watch-watches
a countable noun ends with consonant+y PLUS ies but drop y..: fly- flies, baby-babies
the other nouns get only s ; book-books
and there are twelve nouns related to ves i think you must memorise them ,too..
note: some nouns have irregular plural forms. child- children etc.. sheep- sheep(the same )etc.. u can memorise them..
that is all.. iti is very simple..
hope it is enough..