English as an Additional Language/Articles and Adjectives

Next up we will learn two very important things: articles and adjectives. Both articles and adjectives typically occur before the noun they modify, with articles occurring before adjectives.

Articles

Like other languages, English has a definite and an indefinite article. Unlike most Romance languages, English has no gender of nouns and so the articles don't change at all.

• Definite article (used when the noun or nouns are already known):
  • The
• Indefinite article (used when the noun or nouns is not already known):
  • For singular nouns: a
  • For singular nouns beginning in a vowel or a silent "h:" an Note that often "a" is used in front of vowels for some words; you will have to learn the exceptions individually.
  • For plural nouns, the closest thing to an article would be some.

Adjectives

Remember that an adjective describes a noun. In English, adjectives are always placed before the noun, for example:

• The red apple.
• A soft sheep.
• An angry dragon.
• The silly boys.
• Some hard rocks.

Also, English adjectives do NOT agree with number or gender:

• The red apples, NOT The reds apples
• Some tall women, NOT Some talles women

The exception, however is the adjective "blond", which agrees with gender in writing:

• The blond boy, but;
• The blonde girl.

This is not strictly observed, however. Either "blond" or "blonde" is acceptable, and you are unlikely to be noticed using the feminine form for a male noun or vice versa.