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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
English Articles with places
Hello!
Could you help me with English article usage?
Which articles should I use in the descriptions of pictures? A or THE?
For example I want to describe a picture in an exam:
In the picture I can see........
three children playing in a garden / in the garden
a couple walking in a park / in the park
a woman lying on a beach / on the beach
an old man at a campsite/ at the campsite
a young man in a library / in the library
four children playing in a street / in the street
I've read many books and I still have problem with putting the correct article. I've read that some places can have only the article even if they should have a/an articles (even if they're not unique) and in some books I can see the examples with a article. So I'm confused. I've read examples in Swan's Practical English Usage, for example the correct articles with hospital, prison, school, but what about other examples? Some texts put a/an article, other books choose only the.
Thanks for the help.
Could you help me with English article usage?
Which articles should I use in the descriptions of pictures? A or THE?
For example I want to describe a picture in an exam:
In the picture I can see........
three children playing in a garden / in the garden
a couple walking in a park / in the park
a woman lying on a beach / on the beach
an old man at a campsite/ at the campsite
a young man in a library / in the library
four children playing in a street / in the street
I've read many books and I still have problem with putting the correct article. I've read that some places can have only the article even if they should have a/an articles (even if they're not unique) and in some books I can see the examples with a article. So I'm confused. I've read examples in Swan's Practical English Usage, for example the correct articles with hospital, prison, school, but what about other examples? Some texts put a/an article, other books choose only the.
Thanks for the help.
Top answer
Anonymous For example I want to describe a picture in an exam: In the picture I can see........ three children playing in a garden / in the garden a couple walking in a park / in the park a woman lying on a beach / on the beach an old man at a campsite/ at the campsite a young man in a library / in the library four children playing in a street / in the street I would use only 'a/an', but it's not wrong to use 'the'. The ones with 'a/an' signal that you are thinking of them as new information - as something of interest.
- Anonymous For example I want to describe a picture in an exam: In the picture I can see........
- three children playing in a garden / in the garden a couple walking in a park / in the park a woman lying on a beach / on the beach an old man at a campsite/ at the campsite a young man in a library / in the library four children playing in a street / in the street I would use only 'a/an', but it's not wrong to use 'the'.
- The ones with 'a/an' signal that you are thinking of them as new information - as something of interest.
- The ones with 'the' signal that you are thinking of them as already known entities.
- So if you say I see a couple walking in a park it is like saying I see a park, and I see a couple walking in the/that park.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousFor example I want to describe a picture in an exam:
In the picture I can see........
three children playing in a garden / in the garden
a couple walking in a park / in the park
a woman lying on a beach / on the beach
an old man at a campsite/ at the campsite
a young man in a library / in the library
four children playing in a str
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