Using or Omitting the English Article "a" Correctly

Teacher: Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today's tip is on using or omitting the English article "a" correctly.

Teacher: There is no single rule that explains how to choose whether you should use "a", use "the", or not use any article at all. Some times there is only one correct choice, and in other cases different choices change the meaning of the sentence.

Teacher: Today let's discuss the most frequently occurring difference between using the article "a" and using no article. All English nouns can be divided into two classes: those that are countable and those that are not uncountable.

Teacher: It's the meaning of a noun as it's used in a sentence which determinates whether it's countable or uncountable. For instance, in the sentence she has long hair. Hair is uncountable. But in the sentence there is a hair in my soup, hair is countable. This can create some interesting mistakes. For example, I like a dog does not mean wo si huan guo. That should be I like dogs. If you say I like dog, that means you like to eat dog meat. If you say I ate a hamburg, that means wo chi le yi ge han bao. But If you say I ate hamburg, that means you ate raw ground beef.

Teacher: If you say I ate a cake, that means you ate a whole cake, which is very unlikely. You should have said I ate cake, then it means you ate some cake. Notice how the use of the article "a" means that the noun it proceeds is countable. And therefore, you are talking about a whole one, an entire one. If you omit the article "a", then it means that you can't count the noun it proceeds. And therefore, that you are talking about a piece or a quantity of something.

Teacher: So remember to pay careful attention to whether nouns are being used with a countable or uncountable meaning. And be sure to use or omit the article "a" accordingly.

Teacher: This's been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.