Hello and welcome to today's English lesson. My name is Stuart. In today's
lesson we're looking at using articles in English let's go to the intro now
today's lesson is about using articles and specifically the definite article
the or the in English and for a lot of language backgrounds the use of articles
is difficult to understand in English because sometimes we use them sometimes
we don't perhaps in your language if you speak Spanish or Portuguese
perhaps your language uses the definite article more than we do in English so
sometimes it's confusing when you speak or when you write to understand when we
need to use the definite article and when we don't need to use the definite
article the or thee but more or less in these example sentences there's a
there's a a rule or a trick as as to when to use it and when not to use it so
for example I go to bed at around 11:00 p.m. or please put the box under the bed
now why do we have an article here and why don't we have an article here if the
noun is exactly the same well the reason is that when we talk about the words bed
or prison or hospital or school or church or court or university we
sometimes need to use an article and sometimes we don't need to use an
article but it all depends on the purpose so let's have a look I go to bed
at around 11:00 p.m. now I go to bed for a purpose the main purpose of me going
to bed is to sleep that is the purpose of the bed now you can use beds for
other things I know but I'm not going to go down that
path in this video here we'll keep it clean we'll talk about sleeping so the
purpose of me going to bed is to sleep that is what the bed is for okay I don't
need to put the article here but here please put the box under the bed the
purpose of the bed is not for sleeping it's to put the box under it okay it's
to put the box under so it's another reason okay it's used for other reasons
the bed for here it's for putting the box underneath it so put the box under
the bed I go to bed at 11 p.m. but put the box under the bed the purpose and
the other reason second example he was sent to prison at a young age no article
he visited the prison to drop off a package why here again people go to
prison for a reason okay people go to prison because they
committed a crime that is the purpose of the prison so if you go to the prison
for that purpose because you are a criminal or you committed a crime we
don't need to put an article here but in this sentence I went to the prison for a
different reason not because I was a criminal but because I had to drop off a
package so it's another reason for me going to the prison okay so let's see
hope that is clear in those two examples the third example with hospital the same
rule my fever got worse so I went to the hospital what is the purpose of a
hospital the purpose of a hospital is to make you better so if you go to hospital
in order to get better than we don't need to put the article but here the
reason I went to the hospital was to visit my mother so we have an article
the other reason for going to the hospital now I'll just stop here
and say that in American English you can see an article here it's not incorrect
they just use the language differently in that sense but in British English
normally we don't use the article here again school same idea my son goes to
school what is the purpose of the school the purpose of the school is to educate
to study so he goes to school every day but I went to this school to pick him up
because my purpose was not to study my purpose was to pick him up and take him
home okay so my son goes to school I went to the
school or to the school to pick up to pick him up okay
there's the other reason for going the last example some people go to church on
Sundays what is the purpose of a church the purpose of the church is to practice
your religion or to pray so if you go to church for that reason for the reason of
the church being there we don't need to have the article but if you go to a
church for another reason and in this sentence it's because I wanted to take
photos of the Magnificent architecture of the church we have the article it's
as simple as that so no article here for the purpose of
the church why I went there was to pray ah and here to take photos okay so it
was not the reason the church is there the church is not there for people to
take photos people do take photos of the church the church is there as a place of
worship or where where people can pray or people can practice their religion so
no article article so all of the sentences have the same characteristic
purpose other reason article no article okay it's as simple as that now thank
you very much for watching the lesson if you have any questions or comments
please leave them in the section below remember to share the video please on
social media Facebook Google+ Twitter Pinterest share it up on social
media I'll see you in the next lesson have a
good day bye