Articles “The” and “A/an” are tricky for non-native speakers of English. It seems hard to know when to use each one.
One should use “the” when one is talking about something specific. Usually both the person speaking and the person listening understand what object the speaker is referring to, such as the car 
or the bus
. In this case both the speaker and listener know which bus or car it is.
One should use “A” or “an” when speaking about an object in general. ‘An apple or a banana’ could be any banana 
or apple not something specific, such as I would like to eat an apple. 
In contrast, if I said I would like to eat the apple than both the listener and the speaker know which apple it is.
By reading this lecture,i knew the use of articles correctly. Thank u for your explanation:D. If possible, pls explain me about grammar.Bye
hi there , I'm new here and I'm interesting for that ..
Please ,, Could you explain the Gerunds "ing" and Infinitives
& Which verbs do they follow ?
Again, thank you very much for that effort. I'm fortunate to be one member of this group.
Well i need to be familiar with american english.but i have been speaking british english since so many years. what should I do?Please guide.
Reading newspapers/journals from the US should serve as a good starting point. Also, you might want to watch News shows where American English is the medium.
It will be important to listen to people speak American English - that way you can get more familiar with it. As a side note, maybe watching sitcoms like FRIENDS, etc or maybe any series from American television would help you - you wont feel bored and will also learn stuff in the process.
Does this solve your query?
Do you use 'an' before an acronym, or 'a'? Example: I am considering doing an MBA…or I am considering doing a MBA.
I believe that's dictated by the first letter of the acronym. It's "an MBA" since the pronunciation is "em-bee-A" - starts with an "E", a vowel.
Also, we never say "I was hit by AN LASER beam". It's always - I was hit by a LASER beam.
Hi Sovon,
You will have to be familiar with American English for the SAT because the SAT is an American test. You will only need British English if you are going to go to the UK.
Check out the SAT community to find friends to practice with. The LearnHub team posts different questions each week for you to try.
I'm confused about British english and American english.Is it makes any defference in SAT? Can anybody help me?? I need a friend to practice together too …is here anybody such??
Hey Sovon.
Take a look at my lesson, it has a list of common words and their American vs. British spelling.
This can be a confusing concept… but luckily, since the SAT is primarily multiple choice and spelling doesn't count much on the SAT essay, this is not such a big deal. If you can figure out the words as they are written, you should be fine even if you're used to British rather than American English.
More questions? Post them here.
THE [da] the [dee] how do we know when to and what to pronounce at different situations?????//
What I think you mean is when to pronounce these as parts of words.
For [da] it would sound like du-ayy, like "day" with a sharp "A" sound. Words that can be associated with this are daring, daunting, daily, damage and data.
For [dee] it would sound like du-ee, like "detail" with a sharp "E" sound. Words that can be associated with this are determined, delete, derive, defend and delegate.
If you have any other questions about certain words, check out the English community or our ESL community.
Hi there,
The general rules to follow for different pronunciations of the word "the" are as follows:
We say the (da) when the word that comes after it starts with a consonant.
We say thee (dee) when the word that comes after it starts with a vowel.
The other occasion where a person may pronounce "the" as "thee" is for emphasis.
Does that help?
GOOD!
BUT NEED
FEW MORE
LESSONS
AND
EXCERSISES
Related to this issue is what to use and how to pronounce "a"or "an" when it precedes a word stating with an "h". Although you could say "It is a historical event.", the sentence rolls off the tongue easier if you say "It was an istorical event." by keeping the "h" silent.
Hi Hui,
I will work on a lesson for prepositions next.
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