THE ARTICLES
INTRODUCTION
Articles are words that are used before nouns to add some meaning to the sentence
that they occur. The English language has two types of articles. These
are;
- Indefinite articles
- Definite article
TYPES OF ARTICLES
INDEFINITE ARTICLES
These articles
are so called because they usually leave indefinite the person, or thing spoken
of. Indefinite articles are only 2 (two) in number and they are: a and an.
For example
1. A doctor means any doctor.
2. An apple means any apple.
Whether one uses
the article a or an depends on the sound with which the following word begins i.e.
the article “a” is used before
consonant sounds while the consonant “an”
is used before vowel sounds.
Examples
3.
A clock/ a dog/ a man/ a church etc.
4.
An orange/an umbrella/an article, an edge etc.
NOTE:
The choice between the articles a/an is
determined by the sound and not the letter of the word following the article.
Before a word beginning with a vowel sound ‘an’ is used; as, an ass, an enemy, an ink-pad, an orange, an heir, an hour, an honest man etc.
Notice that the
words hour, honest, heir begin with a vowel sound, as the initial
consonant /h/ is not pronounced.
Before a word
beginning with a consonant sound the article a is used; as, a boy, a reindeer, a university student, a
union, a European, a ewe, a unicorn, a useful article etc.
Notice also that
the words (university, union etc.) begin with consonant sounds.
Uses of indefinite Articles
We use the
indefinite article in the following cases;
i.
To mention a
person/thing for the first time; as,
a) A strange man killed the house
girl.
b) I saw a car.
c) He is driving a horse.
ii.
When a person does not want to refer to a particular place,
thing or person; as,
- When you get to Mwanza try to find a good hotel.
- Can you lend me a pen?
- I studied at a university in the UK.
iii.
Before
singular countable nouns; as,
- An elephant destroyed our house.
- A Maasai warrior was killed yesterday.
iv.
To single out an individual as the representative of a class
or a group of items
- A student should always be alert in class.
- A goat is a cheeky animal.
v.
To change a
proper noun into a common noun
- A Solomon came to judgment.
- A Judas was stoned to death.
vi.
with nouns
of nationality
a.
He is a Kenyan
b.
She is a Tanzanian
c.
He is an Irishman
vii.
before some
fractions
a.
he gave me a quarter of his profits
b.
she gave me a half
of her lessons
viii.
Before some
weight and measures
a.
He bought me a kilo of meat
b.
The kitenge is a meter long
ix.
When stating
speed
a.
He was driving 90km an hour
x.
When stating
profession and occupation
a.
I am a teacher
b.
He is an engineer.
Omission of the indefinite article
It is not a must
to always accompany nouns with articles. The indefinite is usually omitted;
i.
Before names
of substances and abstract nouns (uncountable nouns).
- Sugar is bad for your health.
- Gold is a precious metal.
- Honesty is the best policy.
ii.
Before most
proper nouns (names of people, names of continents, countries, cities, mountains,
lakes etc.
- John (name of a person)
- Africa (name of a continent)
- Tanzania (name of a country)
- Mwanza (name of a city)
- Mt. Kilimanjaro (name of a mountain)
- Lake Victoria (name of a lake)
iii.
Before names of
meals ;
- Dinner is ready.
- What time do you love your lunch?
iv.
Before names
of languages;
- We are studying Dholuo.
- We speak Kiswahili at home.
- She is fluent in Kisukuma.
v.
Before names
of relations e.g. father, mother, aunt, uncle,
- Father wants his food on the table
- Aunt has come to visit us.
vi.
Before
schools, colleges, churches, hospital, market places etc. when the place is
visited or used for their primary purpose;
- I learnt French at college.
- They go to church to worship.
- My sick son is still in hospital.
DEFINITE ARTICLE
English only has
one definite article – “the”. It is
so called because it normally points out some particular persons or things. For
example;
- He saw the doctor. (Meaning some particular doctor not any doctor.)
- I met the lunatic. (Meaning that the lunatic is known to the speaker and hearer.)
Use of the definite article
The definite
article “the” is used;
1. The definite article can be used to refer
back to a person or thing that has already been mentioned.
- There are several books available but the book you want is out of print.
- John told me about Uhuru Park. Can we visit the park today?
- Mrs. Otieno gave birth to a baby girl. The girl cried a lot.
2. The
definite article is also used before some
proper nouns e.g.; names of deserts, seas, group of islands, chains of mountains
etc.
a. The Nile is the longest river in
Africa.
b. The Sahara is a desert found in
Africa.
c. The Slave sea is a unique sea not
known by people.
d. Have you been to the West Indies?
3. The definite article is used to identify
someone or something as the only one of its kind or as unique of their kind; as
a. The sun
b. The ocean
c. The earth
d. The sky
e. The sea
4. Before superlatives and nouns preceded
by words by words such as only, first, second etc.
a)
The highest mountain in Africa is Mt.
Kilimanjaro
b)
He was the first man to land on the moon
c)
He was the only lady in the meeting.
5. The definite article can also be used to
indicate the unique quality of something or someone.
a. Midland hotel is the hotel to be in when you visit
Mwanza.
b. The Kubamba is the show to watch every Sunday on Citizen Television.
6. When referring to the playing of musical
instruments such as the guitar, the piano etc. e.g.
a)
He plays the guitar
b)
Martin is learning how to play the piano
c)
Moses is playing the drum
7. Before compass directions only when
followed by the word of or preceded by the word to. e.g.
a)
The south of Tanzania is warmer than the North
8. When referring to someone or something
that a particular community is familiar with e.g.
a)
The president is out of the country
b)
The government has imposed a curfew
c)
Tanzania is the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
REPETITION OF THE ARTICLE
An article is repeated
to distinguish the nouns in a sentence:
Compare the
sentences
a)
I have a black and white dog
b) I
have a black and a white dog
Sentence (a)
means a dog that is partially black and partially white.
Sentence (b)
means two dogs, one black and the other white.
Hence when two
or more adjective’s qualify the same noun, the article is used before the first
adjective only; but when they qualify different nouns then the article is
normally used before each adjective.
Compare these
sentences once more:
(a) The secretary and treasurer
is absent.
(b) The secretary and the treasurer are absent.
The first
sentence clearly indicates that the posts of secretary and treasurer are held
by one person.
The
repetition of the article in the second sentence indicates that the two posts are held by two different
persons.
Therefore, when
two or more connected nouns refer to the same person or thing, the article is
used before the first noun only; but when two or more connected nouns refer to
different persons or things, the article is used before each noun.
In expressing a
comparison, if two nouns refer to the same person or thing, the article is used
before the first noun only; as,
- He is a better mechanic than clerk.
- He is a better poet than novelist.
- But if they refer to different persons or things, the article must be used with each noun;
- He is a better mechanic than a clerk.
- He would make a better statesman than a philosopher.
Fill in the blanks with a/an or
the
a) I
have never seen such _______ angry man
b) The
lady was driving________ European car
c) That
was ______ honest answer.
d) That
was _____awful thing to say.
e) Mary
was ____only one I talked to.
f) He
knows how to play_____trumpet.
g) He
wants to climb______ Ruwenzori mountains
DIRECT
SPEECH TO INDIRECT SPEECH – PRONOUN
According to Thomson A.J and Martinet A.V.A (1985) Speech
means means a talk or a dialogue between two persons. A
speech can be reported in form of direct or indirect speech.
Direct
speech
According
to Murthy . J.D.(1998) direct speech is the repetition of words of a person
exactly in his or her own words to someone.
According
to Thomson. A. J and Martinet A. V (1985) direct speech, is the way of
reporting by repeating the original speaker’s exact words.
Therefore we can define direct speech
as the way of a sentence ( or several sentences) that reports speech or thought
in its original form as phrased by the original speaker.
Examples
of Direct speech
1. “I
will be here tomorrow” Asha said.
2. Mungo
said,’
I know your my best friend.”
Rules
of Direct speech
I.
In direct speech, quotation marks (or
inverted comma (‘)) are put around what has actually been spoken or quoted. The
quotation marks enclose other punctuation such as commas (,) full stop (.)
question marks (?) and exclamation marks (!).
II.
Quotation marks may be single (‘) or
double (“) and are placed high above first and last words of a quotation with a
capital letter.
III.
If you start with He said, a comma must come
after he said and what is quoted must start with a capital letter.
Example:
He said, ‘Everybody must work.’ But if He said comes at the end, the
comma must before the closing quotation mark.
Example;
‘Everybody must work,’ he said.
IV.
If the quotation ends with an exclamation mark
(!) or a question mark(?) a comma is not
used and the word that follows
must not start with a capital letter.
Example;
“ Is there a bar around?” the thief asked.
“Am I intelligent!” he said.
V.
If there is a quote within a quote we
use double quotes (“ “) for the second quotation
Example;
Rukia said, “ Just as I was leaving, a voice shouted, “ hands up.”
Indirect
speech
According
to Thomson J. A . Martinet A.V 1985 define indirect speech means we give
the exact meaning of remark or a speech without necessary using the speaker’s
exact words.
Example:
Indirect speech: She said that she had
lost her umbrella
Therefore,
indirect speech is the way of reporting what someone said without quoting
his/her exact words. It sometimes be referred as reported speech.
Example;
Indirect;
Elias said that he was very busy then.
PRONOUNS
According
to Michael Kadeghe (2010).Pronouns are words which stand for noun.
According
to Rweyongeza et al (2010).Pronouns are words that stand instead of
nouns.
Pronouns
change when a sentence is transformed from direct to indirect speech. Examples
of the type of pronouns which change when sentence is transformed from direct
to indirect speech are personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative and
reflexive pronouns.
PERSONAL PRONOUNS:
Personal pronouns are those which help us to
identify the speaker and they can be divided into three groups:
A) FIRST PERSONAL PRONOUNS,
In the first personal pronoun, pronouns change
according to the subject of the reporting verbs in the indirect speech
For
instance;
I.
Direct speech: He said, “I am busy”
Indirect speech: He said that he was
busy.
II.
Direct speech: She said, “I live in NewYork”.
Indirect speech: She said that she
lived in New York.
III.
Direct speech: I said, “I will be late”.
Indirect speech: I said that I would be
late.
NB:
First person pronoun in reported speech i.e. I, we, me, us, mine, or our does
not change if the pronoun (subject) of reporting is also personal pronoun i.e.
I or we.
Example:
I.
Direct speech: I said, “I write a
letter”
Indirect speech: I said that I
wrote a letter.
II.
Direct speech: We said, “We completed
our work”
Indirect speech: We said that we
completed our work.
B)
SECOND PERSONAL PRONOUN.
In
the second personal pronoun, a pronoun change according to the object of the
reporting verb in the indirect speech.
For
example:
I.
Direct speech: He said to me, “you
have to come with me”
Indirect speech: He said to me
that I had to go with him.
II.
Direct speech: She said to him, “you are
intelligent”
Indirect speech: she said to him
that he was intelligent.
III.
Direct speech: where are you going
now? His wife asked
Indirect speech: his wife asked him
that where he was going then
NB:
In
the third personal pronoun, the pronoun will not change in the indirect speech
such as he, she and they
For
example
I.
Direct speech: He said, “She is a good girl”
Indirect speech: he said that she was
a good girl
II.Direct
speech: they said, “He will come”
Indirect speech: they said that he would
come
III.Direct
speech: she said, “They have invited us”
Indirect
speech: she said that they had invited them
Demonstrative
pronouns
Are
the pronouns used to point out person or things we talk about.
Example: That, this, these and those
Demonstrative
pronoun changes when sentences are changed from direct speech to indirect
speech as follows
Direct
speech: Amos said, “This is the book I bought”
Indirect
speech: Amos said that, that was the book he bought
Direct
speech: “These are my father’s houses” Mumabu said
Indirect
speech: Mumabu said that those
were his father’s houses.
NB.
The
demonstrative pronouns that and those are remain unchanged when sentences is
transformed from direct to indirect speech.
Example:
I.Direct
speech: “That is my bag” Dorice said to me
Indirect speech: Dorice said to me that
that was her bag.
II.Direct
speech: Kingu said, “Those are books I bought”
Indirect speech: Kingu said that those were
books he bought.
REFLEXIVE
PRONOUNS
These
are pronoun with self or selves to reflect the action of the very on the
subject
For
instance, my +self-myself
Your+self-yourself
Your+selves-yourselves
Our+selves-ourselves
The
reflexive pronouns also change when a sentence transformed from direct to
indirect speech. For example:
I.Direct
speech: Thomas said, “You must know yourself.”
Indirect speech: Thomas said that I must knew
myself.
I.Direct
speech: “we hurt ourselves” Neema said.
Indirect speech; Neema said that they hurted themselves
II.Direct
speech: “I will do it myself” Pendo said
Indirect speech; Pendo said that she would
do it herself
NB.Some
pronouns do not change when the sentences is transformed from direct to
indirect speech such as relative pronouns, numerical pronoun , reciprocal
pronouns , interrogative pronoun and indefinite pronoun.
Example:
I.Direct
speech: “where are you going?” she asked.
Indirect speech: She asked me where I was
going.
II.Direct
speech: Alfred asked, “Can any body help her?”
Indirect speech: Alfred asked if anybody can help her
II.Direct
speech: Madam said, “They cheated each other”
Indirect speech: Madam said that they had
cheated each other
III.Direct
speech: Juma said, “He came third in the exam”
Indirect speech: Juma said that he went third in exam
IV.Direct
speech: “I met Gerald who had just returned” Asha told me
Indirect speech: Asha told me that she
met Gerald who had just returned.
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