Articles and Common Errors - II

 

                                   Articles and Common Errors - II

Dear readers, in the previous post we discussed some of the common errors associated with Indefinite articles that English as non-native speakers encounter in their daily conversation. This present post highlights the common errors that people tend to commit when they deal with Definite articles.

In English, articles are categorised into two parts – Definite article and Indefinite article. Definite article is ‘the’, and Indefinite articles are ‘a’ and ‘an’. This post focuses on the errors associated with the Definite articles.

1.   I found book.                                                          (Incorrect)

I found the book.                                                   (Correct)

Here ‘book’ refers to a particular book that the speaker was searching for.

2.   I have dropped juice by mistake.                              (Incorrect)

I have dropped the juice by mistake.                       (Correct)

The definite article is used with uncountable nouns.

3.   I would like to visit seashore and mountains.              (Incorrect)

 I would like to visit the seashore and the mountains.     (Correct)

‘The’ is used while referring to the physical environment- rivers and oceans, geographical areas, and mountain ranges.

4.   I am only graduate in my family.                           (Incorrect)

I am the only graduate in my family.                        (Correct)

Tamizharasan is oldest son in his family.             (Incorrect)

Tamizharasan is the oldest son in his family.          (Correct)

‘The’ is used before a superlative adjective that describes a noun as well as with ‘only’, ‘first’, ‘youngest’ etc.

5.   Our home is located at the Mettupalayam Road, the Coimbatore, in the Tamil Nadu.    (Incorrect)

Our home is located at Mettupalayam Road, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.                        (Correct)

Avoid using the definite article to refer to places, i.e., streets, roads, states, and countries. But, we use ‘The’ to refer to the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of India.

Using of articles in both spoken and written versions is necessary for every speaker of English. Learning the correct usage of the articles makes the speakers communicate in English with good accuracy. Let us discuss the errors associated with the usage of the articles in the next post.

 

Author:

Dr. K. Nandhakumar

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore- 641 020

 

Reference:

Saumya Sharma. (2017). Common Errors in Everyday English.