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Hello,

I am currently doing teacher practice with an ESOL class and had a few grammar questions if anyone can help. Firstly I have to teach a lesson with the following question: 'why does one speaker say 'the' greengrocers and the other 'a' greengrocers?' From the statements below:

(A) I'm going to the greengrocer's. Do you want anytjing?

(B) Excuse me, is there a greengrocer's near here?

I'm new to teaching English, and although i have a working definition in my head, i'd like to explain it simply but also with grammitical terminology. Also, i'm wondering exactly why we use 'a' and 'an', my understanding is that we use an before a word that begins with a vowel, such as apple, and a before everything else, although i'm not sure why, or if this is the exact reason. Any help would be very much appreaciated.

Thank you

Hi Tony,

A: the 2 people having the conversation both know which greengrocer's is being discussed.

B: the greengrocer's is unknown to the person asking the question. (S)he is asking generally about that type of shop.

A is used before vowels, you're right there. Except words such as uniform; the u is not pronounced the same as the u in umbrella.

Susan

I agree with Susan but I would say that the word "uniform" is no exception to the rule. Since we are talking about vowels (preceded by an) and consonants (a) it is the sound that matters, not the initial letter. We have to think in terms of pronunciation. Another 'unusual' examples:
an hour, an honest man, a year, a yellow cab.

English has two articles definite (The) and indefinite(a/an). A and An are indefinite articles and are used when referring to something the first time. The is the definite article and is used to refer to specific objects.

Yes, this referring back with the definite article is called ANAPHORIC reference e.g. You described a man with a beard. Is this the man?