第40話：正しい英語を話そう（第2回）冠詞の使い方

Fix your broken English TODAY! Part 2 – Articles A, An and The

How did you find last week’s blog? Did you try using plurals in your sentences? I hope you did. Now, we will dive right in to my second installment for this series.

カタコト英語をなおそう！　パート２：冠詞「a / an / theの使い方」
みんな、前週のブログは見てくれたかな？複数形をうまくつかいこなせた？うん、それでは次のステップに進みましょう。

Articles a, an and the are perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to learn in English for Japanese learners. But the first thing I want you to do today is to attach a or an in front of your singular noun. Do you remember what singulars are? As I have said in the first entry, the number or the amount is quite necessary in order to use the correct predicate in your sentence. Singular refers to being “one” in number.

Basically, we use a or an for singular nouns:

For instance:                   a switch                            an eel

That being said, if you want to talk about something in English you have to think whether it is only one or more than one.

Think:                                        Instead of:

                             a shirt                                   shirt

                             I have a pet.                                 I have pet.

冠詞(a / an / the)は、日本人にはとても使い方が難しいことのひとつだと思う。で、まず大切なのは単数名詞には「a / an」をつけてほしいこと。前回のブログでふれたけど、文章中で数をちゃんとわかるようにするのがとても大事。単数とは「ひとつ」ってことだね。その場合は「a もしくは an」をつけるわけ。例えば、

   a switch                                          an eel


で、文章中では、それが「ひとつ」なのか「多数ある」のかをちゃんと伝えるわけ。

Think:                                             Instead of:

                             a shirt                                                           shirt

                             I have a pet.                                                I have pet.

Here comes the hard part—-using the article the. Don’t worry, I won’t ramble on this one too much.

In a nutshell, the article the is a definite article used for specific things. What do I mean by specific? Let’s have a look at this conversation.

Jake: You told me last week that you bought a car. (Jake doesn’t know which one it is)

Charles: Yes, I did. This is the car.  (Charles points to that particular car)


で、難儀なのが「the」だよね。ここはさらっと説明しちゃうけど、要するに「the」は「そのものが特定してるとき」に使う冠詞なんだ。「特定」ってのはどういうことかというと、この文章をいい例かな。

Jake: 先週、車を買ってって言ってたよね。（Jakeはその車を知らない※特定してない）
Charles:うん、これがその車だよ。（Charlesはその車を見せている※特定している）

In addition, it is also used for people or things if there’s only one of them in the world or in a particular place. For example:

The President 　   The moon   　    The sea 　　　The ky         The office        The hospital      The kitchen          The doctor      

ついでに言っておくと、世界でひとつと特定して話せることや特定の場所を指す場合にも使うんだ。例えば

The President               The moon                       The sea                       The sky                          

The office                       The hospital                  The kitchen                   The doctor      

Try this short quiz to test your knowledge:
さあ、これらの問題、どの冠詞を使うのが正しいかチャレンジしてみよう！

1.      There’s a/an/the interesting show on TV.
2.      I want to get a/an/the pet.
3.      A/An/The U.S. President paid a visit to Japan recently.
4.      I went to a/an/the hospital last week.
5.      Look at a/an/the sky.






How did you do? Please tune in again next time! -Teacher Mina

みんなできた？それじゃまたね！Minaより