What are articles? Articles are the words a, an, and the. They are also known as noun indicators. Articles are modifiers. What kind of modifiers? Adjectives. We will begin talking about modifiers in general in video/lesson 26 or so and begin talking about adjectives in about video/lesson 27. So, why am I bringing this up now? Because your assignment in Lesson 7 was to identify nouns as you go through the day—nouns you hear and nouns you read.
If you are starting all over with grammar and do not remember anything about nouns except for what I told you in the last lesson, you might want a little help. Articles will help you. Just like dark, looming clouds point to the coming rain, articles point to nouns.
When you see an article, you know a noun is imminent. Usually a noun is the very next word following an article. If not, then the only words between the article and the noun are words that directly or cooperatively modify the noun. So, what do you do with those words in between the article and noun? For now, nothing. Your job today is to identify the noun, not the words that describe the noun.
Let’s look at some examples.
a dog an idea the tractor
a house an hour the law
a bill an éclair the chaos
a catastrophe an understanding the meal
a book an ostrich the information
Now let’s go back to some of those nouns and see what they look like with other modifiers or adjectives.
a big, beautiful, black dog
What’s the article? a
What’s the noun? In other words, what is the person, place, thing, activity, or idea that comes after the article a? dog
In fact, let’s cross out those words in between to help you clearly find the noun that follows the article.
a
big, beautiful, black dog
Try this one. an oversized, white house
What’s the article? an
What’s the noun? house
Cross out the other adjectives. an oversized, white house
And this one. a huge bill
What’s the article? a
What’s the noun? bill
Cross
out the other adjectives a huge
bill
Now look at this. an inspiring idea
What’s the article? an
What’s the noun? idea
Cross
out the other adjectives. an
inspiring idea
Another one. a scrumptious éclair
What’s the article? a
What’s the noun? éclair
Cross
out the adjectives. a scrumptious
éclair
And another. the farmer’s favorite tractor
What’s the article? the
What’s the noun? tractor
Cross out the other adjectives. the farmer’s favorite tractor
How about this one: the ensuing chaos
What’s the article? the
What’s the noun? chaos
Cross
out the other adjectives. the
ensuing chaos
One more. the correct and accurate information
What’s the article? the
What’s the noun? information
Cross out the other words. the correct and accurate information
See, that’s it. Go ahead with your assignment from Lesson 7. Find those nouns. If you have problems, look for articles. If you find an article, you know you are going to find at least one noun—maybe more than one—after that article.
At the same time, do not let the lack of an article confuse you. Nouns do not need articles all the time. However, if you have an article, you will have a noun.
Watch the video below to help you review the lesson. If you find this information helpful, please share it and like the video. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. Come back for Lesson 9 “Can you find prepositional phrases with nouns as their objects?” and its related video.
