Learn how to use English articles "the" and "a"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beginner Season 1, Lesson 18 - When Are You Going to the Gym? |
| Chihiro: Chihiro here. |
| Daniel: Daniel here. Beginner series, season one, lesson eighteen. “When are You Going to the Gym?.” |
| Chihiro: Hi, It’s Chihiro, and I’m joined here by Daniel. |
| Daniel: In this lesson, you will learn how to address specific and non-specific things. |
| Chihiro: This conversation takes place in Yuki’s apartment. |
| Daniel: The conversation is between Yuki and Vicky, 2 students at IU |
| Chihiro: The speakers are friends, therefore, the speakers will be speaking casually. Listeners, I have a question. |
| Daniel: A question? What’s that? |
| Chihiro: Yup, I want to know when was the last time you commented? |
| Daniel: Ah, yeah. Good question. |
| Chihiro: Stop by EnglishClass101.com, leave us a comment, or just say hi. |
| Daniel: OK, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Naomi: Hey, when are you going to the gym? |
| Vicky: Tomorrow…why? You've never asked me that before. |
| Naomi: Well, I was thinking of going with you, since the university has a gym. |
| Vicky: But I thought you didn't like it there? |
| Naomi: Well, a friend of mine told me that I put on some weight recently, and I noticed that my jeans didn't fit earlier this week! Looks like I've developed quite an appetite! |
| Vicky: Freshman fifteen? |
| Naomi: I hope only fifteen! So I thought I'd do a little exercise. You know, get into shape. |
| Vicky: Yeah, it helps with stress as well; I feel like I can concentrate better in class. There's also a pool on campus too, if you don't like the gym. |
| Naomi: Oh yeah, I heard Mike goes to the pool often. Maybe I'll try that if I don't like the gym. |
| Vicky: That's a good idea. I'll come with you to the pool as well. I'd like to check it out for myself. |
| Naomi: Sure, sounds like a plan. But tomorrow, we'll go to the gym. Now, if I can only remember where I put my shorts. |
| Vicky: Wow, it's really been a while, hasn't it? I have a pair if you can't find yours! |
| Naomi: Thanks, I knew I could count on you! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Daniel: Sounds like Yuki put on a little weight! |
| Chihiro: Yeah, sounds like a familiar situation to me! Many universities have gyms and pools and other sports facilities on campus. These resources are usually free for all students who are attending that particular university to use, right, Daniel? |
| Daniel: That’s right. There are also many that are open to the public, which in most cases the participant must pay a fee for joining. |
| Chihiro: Yes, that's how it was at the university I went to. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Daniel: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Chihiro: gym [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: a place equipped with machines and other tools for exercising |
| Chihiro: gym [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: gym [natural native speed] Next... |
| pool [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: swimming pool, a small body of water contained for swimming |
| pool [slowly - broken down by syllable] pool [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: weight [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: amount of heaviness, how heavy something is |
| Chihiro: weight [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: weight [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| recently [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: during a close period of time |
| recently [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| recently [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: to remember [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to recall, to think again |
| Chihiro: to remember [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to remember [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| jeans [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: pants usually made of sturdy twill fabric jeans [slowly - broken down by syllable] jeans [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: exercise [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: something done in order to practice or train |
| Chihiro: exercise [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: exercise [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| stress [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: mental or emotional strain |
| stress [slowly - broken down by syllable] stress [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Chihiro: to fit [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to be of the right shape and size |
| Chihiro: to fit [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to fit [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| to concentrate [natural native speed] |
| Daniel: to focus all efforts on one thing |
| to concentrate [slowly - broken down by syllable] to concentrate [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Daniel: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Chihiro: The first phrase we’ll look at is, “Freshman fifteen”. The number fifteen in this phrase refers to fifteen pounds in weight, which is roughly 7kg. Freshmen are students who are in their first year of college. The two combined together is used to describe how common it is for college students to gain weight in their first year. This, of course, is not true for all college students, but seems to be true for Yuki. |
| Daniel: Yes, this could be for many different reasons, but stress from school is one of them. The next phrase we'll look at is “I knew I could count on you!” The person saying this phrase means that he or she was relying on another person, and knew that the person could be trusted. In the dialogue, Yuki says this phrase to Vicky because she knew that she could depend on her to have a pair of shorts ready if she couldn't find hers. Another example of this is, |
| Chihiro: I knew I could count on you to bring the candles without us asking. |
| Daniel: Which means that the person was reliable enough to bring the candles without having to be told. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Daniel: Ok, now on to the grammar point. The focus today is on articles as in the sentence, when are you going to the gym? Throughout this series, you have seen short words in front of nouns such as “a,” “an” and “the”. These are called articles, and they help to distinguish nouns in English. The definite article is “the”, and the indefinite articles are “a”, or “an”. |
| Chihiro: First, let’s take a look at the definite article. “The” is used when the speaker is talking about a specific noun, something that both the speaker and listener know. For example in the dialogue, Yuki asks Vicky |
| Daniel: “When are you going to the gym?” |
| Chihiro: Using “the” in front of gym. This is because Yuki is talking about a specific gym, the one that Vicky usually goes to, therefore she refers to the gym as “the gym.” |
| Daniel: Right. Now, in comparison to “the”, the indefinite article “a” or “an”, refers to a noun that is not specific, that is, perhaps one out of many. Take for example, the line... |
| Chihiro: “Well, a friend of mine told me that I put on some weight.” |
| Daniel: In this sentence, Yuki talks about a friend that Vicky doesn’t know, therefore when she mentions this friend, she uses the indefinite article “a”. If the noun starts with a vowel or vowel sound, then the article is “an”. In the dialogue, |
| Chihiro: “Looks like I’ve developed quite an appetite!” |
| Daniel: The article is “an” because it comes in front of the vowel A for appetite. |
| Chihiro: That's right. And also remember that “an” also comes in front of words such as “honor” and “hour” because the first sound of the word is a vowel. But be careful here. If the word begins with a vowel but is pronounced like a consonant, such as the word “user”, then the article in front is not “an” but “a”. |
| Daniel: If we look at the two sentences, |
| Chihiro: “There’s also a pool on campus too, if you don’t like the gym.” |
| Daniel: And |
| Chihiro: “Oh yeah, Mike often goes to the pool on campus too.” |
| Daniel: We can see how the two speakers talk about this pool in both the specific and non-specific way. The first time it’s mentioned, it’s referred to as “a” pool, which shows that the speaker is talking about the campus pool, which has been non-specific to both speaker and listener until the time it has been mentioned. |
| Chihiro: And every time after that, it’s referred to as “the” pool since it’s the same pool they talk about. Remember this in your conversations. Use “a” or “an” to introduce a noun and then use “the” when you talk about it again. |
| Daniel: Also remember that “the” can be used to refer to plural nouns, while “a” and “an” can only refer to single nouns. For example, we can say, |
| Chihiro: “She ate the cookies.” |
| Daniel: But we cannot say |
| Chihiro: “She ate a cookies.” |
| Daniel: For more practice, listen to the lessons before and look at the PDFs and try to notice how “a”, “an”, and “the are used. |
| Chihiro: Okay, good luck! |
Outro |
| Daniel: That just about does it for today. Don’t forget that you can leave us a comment on this lesson. |
| Chihiro: So if you have a question or some feedback, please leave us a comment. |
| Daniel: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by EnglishClass101.com... |
| Chihiro: Click on comments, |
| Daniel: Enter your comment and name, |
| Chihiro: And that’s it! |
| Daniel: No excuses! We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Until next time, bye. |
| Chihiro: See you. |
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