Grammar in focus
The three choices
| Article | When | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a / an | One, not specific, singular and countable; jobs; first mention | I have a car. She is an engineer. |
| the | Specific, already known, unique, superlatives, ordinals | The car is red. The sun. The best. |
| (no article) | Plural or uncountable in general; languages; meals; most countries; sports | I like music. She speaks Spanish. We have lunch. |
a or an?
It depends on the sound, not the letter: an hour, an umbrella, an honest man but a university, a European car, a one-way ticket.
More rules
- First mention → a, second mention → the: I saw a movie. The movie was great.
- Instruments: play the piano. Sports: play soccer (no article).
- Places: the United States, the Alps, the Pacific Ocean (the). Mexico, Lake Michigan, Mount Everest (no article).
- Fixed expressions: go to bed, at school, at work, by car, at night.
- Exclamations: What a day! She's such a nice person!
- The + adjective = group: the rich, the poor, the French.
En español
a/an = uno, no específico (según el sonido que sigue). the = algo específico o ya conocido, único, superlativos. Sin artículo con plurales e incontables en general, idiomas, comidas, deportes y casi todos los países. Primera mención: a; segunda mención: the.
US vs UK
This book teaches American English. These are the differences you will notice with British English on this topic.
Americans use the with hospital; British English often omits it.
En EE. UU. se usa the con hospital; en Reino Unido se omite.
US says go to college; UK says go to university without an article.
En EE. UU. se dice go to college; en Reino Unido go to university sin artículo.
Sports: no article in both. Different words and prepositions.
Deportes: sin artículo en ambos. Cambian palabras y preposiciones.
Exam practice
- Five parts, like a certification exam: multiple choice, open cloze, error identification, sentence transformation and US vs UK.
- Typed answers accept American spelling and contractions (don't = do not).
- Every item has feedback in English and Spanish. Items and options change order on every attempt.
- Only Exam mode saves your score to your progress. You pass with 70%.
Practice mode
No timer. Check each part as you go and read the feedback.
Exam mode
25 minutes. Feedback at the end. Your best score is saved.