Explain what articles are and how they function in a sentence.
Explain how to determine correct article usage and the difference between “the” and “a/an” (definite and indefinite articles)
This packet should help a learner seeking to understand English grammar and who is confused about the difference between definite and indefinite articles.
This two-minute video lists and explains six major facts about articles.
Source: Nancy Heilman
This 4 minute video is a BASIC overview of what definite vs. indefinite articles are.
Source: Nancy Heilman
This brief video gives a more in-depth discussion of the rules governing the use of the DEFINITE article "the."
Source: Nancy Heilman
This brief video gives a more in-depth discussion of the rules governing the use of the INDEFINITE articles "a" and "an."
Source: Nancy Heilman
As is typical with the English language, there are numerous exceptions, where no articles are used before nouns. The following edufind.com website page lists some of these, as well as giving example sentences: http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/definite_article_exceptions.php
Also, The Writing Center (at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York) has a helpful pdf file, for those who want more in-depth information about article usage: http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/wc_web/handouts/Articles_ESL.pdf. Countable and uncountable nouns are discussed in this pdf file as well (pages 2 and 3), which is yet another facet of article usage.
