8171 articles

Fun with Articles!
Read the following sentences. What do you notice about the way the articles are used?
(a)There once was a very tall ESL student from Brazil who lived in a very small apartment.
The apartment was really much too small for the student, but he liked it anyway.
(b) Luiz used to have both a Brazilian girlfriend and a French girlfriend.
The Brazilian girl had no idea about the French girl. The French girl knew about the Brazilian girl, but she
didn’t care. (Poor Luiz couldn’t make up his mind between them.)
c) Ayano had a cat as a pet when she was a child. Every day, the cat would try to scratch her.
Now, what do you notice about this sentence?
Manuela read a really interesting magazine article yesterday. The author claimed to have proof that human
beings are descendants of aliens from another planet. The evidence she provided was startling!
Fill in the blanks with the correct article (or NO article). More than one answer may be possible, so be
prepared to explain your choice!
1. I have _____________ really stupid friend who is careless with __________money. He has __________
good-paying job, but he doesn’t even have __________ bank account. He says he doesn’t need one because
he spends his salary right away. He gets ______pay check once _______
week. __________money is always gone before ______ week is over. I don’t know what he spends it on!
2. I saw _______”interesting” play last night. _______ actors were excellent, and _______set was beautiful.
However, ______play itself was not very well written.
3. Would you like __________cake? ________ icing is ______special recipe from _______friend of my
mother’s. I made _______ake and ______icing all by myself!
4. Little Jonny doesn’t like__________school. He says ______teachers re boring. He doesn’t like doing
_________homework. He much prefers to watch ______cartoons on TV. As _______result, his teachers
aren’t very happy with ________the way he performs in class. If he doesn’t take ________
responsibility for doing ________assignments, he may have to repeat _________same grade next year.