8 Articles
• Names of some alphabet letters { f,h ,l, m, n, r, s, and x) are pronounced with an initial vowel sound and go with an. Friday starts with an f '
Stress Articles are usually unstressed and pronounced with weak forms. • afal •
an /3 n/
•
the /da/ or before vowel sounds /5i/ NB there is typically an intrusive /j/ sound the apple /5i j aepal/.
You would normally only use strong forms when you want to emphasise something. Stressing a or an (possibly with /ei/ or /aen/pronunciation) would normally emphasise that it was only one item you were referring to, not many. No, not ‘turkeys' I said ca turkey' - just one. Stressing the (probably with /5i:/ pronunciation) would emphasise the uniqueness or importance or high quality of the thing referred to. No, he's not a boss. He's the boss. D on’t model and teach the strong forms /ei/, /aen/ and /5i:/ as the standard, correct pronunciations. These pronunciations are rare but mis-teaching of them is a key reason why students’ language often sounds unnatural and odd. So for example, if you teach nouns like fire or orange - make sure you model /3 faia/ and /an Drind3 / rather than /ei fais/and /aen orind 3 /.
Watch out for these problems . . . X Give me pen. X Have you done homework?
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Students om it articles:
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Students om it a I an with jobs: teacher.
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Students use a I an with plurals:
X Peter is businessman. X I want to be history X What a beautiful photos!
Teaching tip: create your own exercises? The main problem with creating your own exercises is that you can unwittingly put in questions that are very problematic to answer or explain yourself. Articles, while being necessary right down to beginner level, also have some truly advanced-level complexities. When asked why a certain answer is the not an, I have found myself on more than one occasion saying ‘It just is’ or words to that effect. When teaching lowrer levels, if you are unsure of your linguistic ground, this is one language area where you may do best to stick to published sources for exercises. If you do decide to make your owTn, watch out for the complexities!
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