Revision of articles with the words school, space, prison, church, bed, work, college, hospital and university

—   Hello, boys and girls! My name is James. This is Martin.

—   And my name is Nathaniel.

—   Welcome to our grammar lesson!

—   Yesterday my niece called me on the phone. She was crying, so I couldn’t understand what happened. I told her to calm down. When she stopped crying, she told me her story.

—   Listen to the conversation between Nathaniel and his niece Lexi and you’ll find out the topic of the lesson today.

—   Uncle Nathaniel, everything is so awful. I hate school! I will never go back there again.

—   Lexi, please, tell me what’s wrong.

—   Well… It was 11 o’clock and we had our English lesson. The teacher started asking different questions without even explaining the rule to us.

—   What was the rule about?

—   It was about the use of articles with the following words: “school”, “space”, “prison”, “church”, “bed”, “work”, “college”, “hospital” and “university”.

—   Oh, I see. What happened next?

—   Well… She asked me a question, but I didn’t know the answer.

—   Oh, Lexi. It’s okay. You don’t have to know everything.

—   Yes, uncle Nathaniel. You’re right, but all my classmates started laughing at me. I hate them! I won’t go to school anymore.

Lexi started crying again.

—   Oh, my darling. Please, don’t cry! Calm down.

—   No, I can’t! It was humiliating.

—   All right! If you stop crying, I will invite you to my place tomorrow and explain the rule to you.

—   Really? But… you’re so busy.

—   Don’t worry, I’ll find time for my lovely niece.

—   Thank you, uncle Nathaniel. I’ll come.

—   Great!

—   See you.

As you can understand, today in the lesson we will:

·        revise articles with the words: “school”, “space”, “prison”, “church”, “bed”, “work”, “college”, “hospital”, “university”;

And

·        put the knowledge into practice.

—   Hello, uncle Nathaniel. Wow… Mr. Green and Mr. Wilson are also here today.

—   Yeah! I didn’t tell you, because we wanted to make a surprise for you.

—   Cool! I’m so happy to see all of you.

—   We are glad to see you too, Lexi.

—   All right, sweetie! First of all, let’s revise the definition of the term “article”.

Articles are the words that define a noun as specific or unspecific.

Compare the following two examples:

The first example:

After the exhausting walk, the bowl of soup tasted particularly good.

(By using the article “the”, we have shown that it was one specific walk that was exhausting and one specific bowl of soup that tasted good).

The second example:

After an exhausting walk, a bowl of soup tastes particularly good.

(By using the article “a”, we have created a general statement, implying that any bowl of soup would taste good after any exhausting walk).

—   Now let’s revise the types of the articles.

There are two types of articles: definite and indefinite.

The definite article is the word the.

For example: the guitar, the judge.

The indefinite article has two forms.

The first form is the word a.

The second form is the word an.

For example: a forest, an audience.

There is also a zero article in English. The term “zero article” refers to noun phrases that have no articles. We don’t use an article with general nouns.

For instance:

Trees are white in the winter.

(In this sentence we want to say that all trees are white in the winter).

—   Now let’s talk in more detail about the articles with the following words: “school”, “space”, “prison”, “church”, “bed”, “work”, “college”, “hospital” and “university”.

—   Great! I will learn this rule by heart. After that I will go to school and answer all the questions. And nobody will laugh at me ever again.

—   It’s a wonderful plan, Lexi. In this case, let’s start.

We need to use zero article with the words like «school», «space», «prison», «church», «bed», «work», «college», «hospital», «university» when they denote activities associated with these places.

Look at the following examples:

·        To study at school

·        To go to space

·        To be in prison

·        To attend church

·        To stay in bed

·        To finish work

·        To leave college

·        To take somebody to hospital

·        To enter university

You can see that we used “zero article” in all of these phrases.

We use articles “the”, “a”, “an” with the nouns: «school», «space», «prison», «church», «bed», «work», «college», «hospital», «university» when they denote a particular building or an object.

Let’s look at the examples below and compare them.

1. The word “school”.

Tomorrow I will go to the school when my daughter has lessons.

(Here we are talking about a particular school).

Children go to school every day.

(In this sentence we aren’t talking about a particular building).

2. The word “space”.

Liam doesn’t believe in creatures from the outer space.

(The boy doesn’t believe in creatures from a particular space).

I don’t know who the first woman in space was.

(In this example we aren’t talking about a particular space).

3.The word “prison”.

Anne’s uncle works at the prison outside the city centre.

(The man works at a concrete prison).

Robert is in prison now.

(In this example we don’t mean a concrete building).

4. The word “church”.

The church in our village was built in the 15^th century.

(Here we are talking about a particular church).

Megan goes to church every Sunday.

(When we say that, we don’t mean a particular building).

5. The word “bed”.

The old bed is more comfortable than the new one.

(In this sentence we are talking about two concrete beds).

My friends go to bed at 9 p.m.

(Here we don’t mean a concrete bed).

6. The word “work”.

The work won’t be finished by 9 a.m.

(We are talking about a specific work).

Max was feeling sick last week so he didn’t go to work.

(Here we aren’t talking about a specific work).

7. The word “college”.

This building looks exactly like the college Alex went to.

(Here we are saying that the building looks like a particular college).

Many pupils go to college after school.

(In this sentence we don’t mean a particular building).

8. The word “hospital”

Mark used to work as a cleaner at a hospital.

(Mark worked at a concrete hospital).

Ryan, you’re so pale. You need to go to hospital.

(In this example we don’t mean a concrete building).

9. The word “university”.

Jennifer has gone to the university for a meeting.

(She went to a particular place).

After finishing high school Julia is planning to go to university.

(In this sentence we don’t mean a particular building).

We also use articles “the”, “a” and “an” with the nouns: «school», «space», «prison», «church», «bed», «work», «college», «hospital», «university» if they are modified by a descriptive attribute.

For instance:

Bobby spent five years in a Spanish prison.

The local hospital will be closed soon.

Miranda studies at a prestigious school.

—   That’s all you need to know, my dear.

—   Great, uncle Nathaniel. I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see my teacher and show her my knowledge. I got to go. Bye.

—   Lexi, where are you going?

—   Home, uncle Nathaniel.

—   But we haven’t finished our lesson yet. We would like you to do one exercise.

—   Yeah! We want to make sure that you’ve understood all the information.

—   Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot about everything.

—   It’s okay.

—   What do I need to do?

—   All right, listen to me very attentively!

This is George. Help him to complete the story about himself. Insert the, a/an or zero article.

The first sentence. Let’s check.

My mum used to tell me that all pupils must go to school.

The second sentence. Check yourselves.

When I turned six, I went to the local school.

The third sentence. Let’s check.

After finishing my school, I was planning to go to university.

The fourth sentence. Check yourselves.

Unfortunately, the university that I wanted to enter was really expensive for me.

The fifth sentence. Let’s check.

As a result, I entered the college near my house.

The sixth sentence. Check yourselves.

When I graduated from the college, I decided to become a doctor.

And the last sentence. Let’s check.

Now I work as a nurse at a hospital, but I hope that soon I’ll become a very good doctor.

—   Wonderful, Lexi. Now I don’t have to worry about you.

—   What do you mean?

—   I mean that now you know everything. And you won’t give anybody a chance to laugh at you!

—   That’s true. Thanks to all of you. I really appreciate that.

—   You’re welcome.

—   It was a pleasure for us to explain the rule to you, Lexi.

—   Can I go now?

—   Ha-ha. Yes, you can.

—   See you.

—   See you, Lexi.

—   That’s all for today, our dear friends.

—   We hope you liked the lesson.

—   See you soon, boys and girls.