Artigos Definidos e Indefinidos Inglês

ARTICLES

How to use the definite and indefinite articles

DEFINITE ARTICLES

The definite article “the” is used before a noun that was already mentioned on the text or on the speech. It means “o, a, os, as” in Portuguese but, in English, it doesn’t change to plural or female. See:

● The girl

● The boy

● The boys

● The girls

WHEN DO I USE DEFINITE ARTICLES?

1) Nouns already defined in the text, that is, mentioned before:

● She wrote me some letters. The letters were about her routine in Spain.

● He bought a big house. Before, the house belonged to a famous soccer player.

2) Nouns that are the only ones of their kind:

● The sun

● The planet Earth

● The universe

● The sky

● The moon

3) Names of deserts, rivers, gulfs, group of islands, mountain chains, seas, channels, oceans and poles, that is, geographic names.

● The Amazonas river

● The Gulf of Mexico

● The Bahamas

● The Alps

● The English Channel

● The North Pole

● The Pacific Ocean

● The Sahara

4) Compound names of countries

● The United Kingdom

● The United Arab Emirates

● The Dominican Republic

● The United States

INDEFINITE ARTICLES

The indefinite articles “a” and “an” are used before a noun that was not mentioned on the text or on the speech. It means “um” or “uma” in Portuguese but, in English, it doesn’t change to plural or female. Let’s see how it works:

1) “A” is used before words starting with consonants’ sound, it means, before consonants, the semivowel Y and the audible “H”.

● A book

● A year

● A house

● A university

2) “An” is used before words starting with vowels’ sound, it means, before vowels and the non-audible “H”.

● An egg

● An opera

● An arm

● An evening

ATTENTION! There are only four words in English with non-audible “H”:

●