English Grammar: The 5 Most Frequent Article Mistakes

"I am an engineer", "I am engineer", hmm, which one is it?

Hey, everyone, I'm Alex, thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five common

article mistakes.

If you are a beginner English learner or an intermediate English learner, you may have

made some of these mistakes, and it's okay.

Everyone makes mistakes.

It's normal to make mistakes, especially when you are learning something.

Today, I will teach you the proper forms in five specific cases that use articles.

So, first of all, when you are talking about job titles or statuses, what is the correct

form?

So, I said, hmm, "I am an engineer" or "I am engineer".

Well, in English, we have...

We have a noun, here.

It's a singular noun.

Even though it's a job title, it's a singular noun.

With a singular noun that is countable, you need an article, so this is correct.

"I am an engineer."

Next, "She's a mother" or "She's mother".

Well, we just learned that you need an article when you talk about your job or your status,

so of course, the answer is "She's a mother".

So, let me ask you, what do you do?

Are you a student?

Are you a father?

Are you an engineer?

Are you a teacher, perhaps?

So, don't forget, when you talk about your status or your job, you need to use the article.

Next, adjectives followed by singular nouns.

So, we have "He's honest man" or "He's an honest man".

Now, sometimes when someone who is learning English sees an adjective, they don't think

about the article.

What you really have to focus on is the complete phrase, right, "honest man".

Now, "man" is singular, and as we discussed in number one, when you have a singular noun,

you need to use an article.

So, "He's an honest man", this is the correct answer in this case.

So, you probably know the correct answer in the second case, "It was great party", or

"It was a great party".

You can have multiple parties, right?

So, if you talk about one party, you need to use the article "a".

"It was a great party."

Whew.

Alright.

So far, so good.

Let's continue to the next one.

Okay, so the third common article mistake is made with public places.

So, when you have a public place, and usually it's with the verb "go" or with the verb "to

be", like, "Where are you?"

"I am at the bank."

Or "the library."

Now, I've just given you the answer.

You need to use the definite article with most public places, such as "the gas station",

"the park", "the grocery store".

Any place where people go to a building or a park, for example, you need to use the article

"the".

So, for example, "I'm going to the park."

Not - oh, I swear this was fine when I checked it before - "the park".

Maybe I need to go in closer.

Well, you know what I mean.

You can kind of see it.

This is the correct one, not "I'm going to park".

Next, "She went to bank."

No, no, no.

"She went to the bank."

Okay, so tell me, do you need to go anywhere today?

You can say, "I need to go to", okay, and "Where did you go yesterday?"

Or maybe, "Where did you go today?"

So, practice this, say, "I went to", plus the location, "I went to", okay, so maybe

you said, "I went to the grocery store", "I went to the park", or "I went to the bank",

or "the library", or "the gas station", or "the convenience store", for example.

All right, let's move on to the next one.

So, this one is about general statements.

So, let me tell you, when you make a general statement, whether it has a countable noun

or an uncountable noun, you typically do not use an article.

So, for example, you don't say, "The water is wet", if you mean water in general, all

water.

You just say, "Water is wet."

With that in mind, let's practice with these two examples.

"Do you like the apples?" or "Do you like apples?"

Now, this one, "Do you like the apples?"

It is possible if the person gives you a bunch of apples, very specific apples, right?

But if you mean apples in general, like all apples, apples in general, the answer is "Do

you like apples?"

Same with the second example, "The people are usually kind."

If you mean all people, you're making a general statement about humanity, you don't use an

article.

You just say, "People, people are usually kind."

So, remember, if you make a general statement, usually, if it's countable, you use the plural

form, right?

So, "Bananas are yellow", for example, "Bananas are yellow", "Water is wet", uncountable,

here in this case, or "People are usually kind", society is very complex.

Got it?

Finally, we have superlative adjectives.

When you use a superlative adjective in a sentence, you need to use the article "the"

before it.

So, "He's the greatest chef in the world.

He makes amazing meals.

He's greatest chef in the world."

Which one is it?

I just explained the rule.

"The greatest", of course, "He is the greatest chef in the world."

Next, "It's hottest day of the year", or "It's the hottest day of the year".

The hottest.

So, this one is correct.

So, remember, this is words like "the best", "the worst", "the hottest", "the biggest",

"the tallest", "the coldest", "the", "the", "the", "the", "the".

So, speaking of "the", we have come to the end of this video, and I hope you have learned

something new by practicing and learning about these five common article mistakes.

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Until next time, thanks for clicking.

I have been talking for too long.

Let's stop this video, and see you next time.

Yeah, let's end that way.