ELL grammar keys

Milena and Verônica

Articles• Most English speaker recognize three articles: – The indefinite articles ( a and an )– The definite article ( the )

• There is an article problem that occurs as well: the usage of no article. This happen because some languages:– have no articles (Chinese), – some have only the definite article (Arabic), – and others have the same articles as English but their

usage maybe different (French).

Articles – Grammar Explanation

Articles – Grammar Explanation

Articles – Grammar Explanation

Common ELL mistakes

Compare English with other Languages

Articles – difference between English and Portuguese

Definite Article• Unlike English, which has only one definite

article “the", Portuguese has 4 definite articles:

- O (masculine singular), O livro (the book) - A (masculine singular) A casa (the house) - Os (masculine plural) Os livros (the books) - As (feminine plural) As casas (the houses)

Articles – difference between English and PortugueseIndefinite Article

•While we have (a / an / some) in English as indefinite articles, we also have um/ uma. uns/ umas in Portuguese.

•In general, whenever (a, an) are used in English you, you need to use (un) or (una) to say the equivalent in Portuguese.

- Um (masculine singular), um livro (a book)- Uma (masculine singular) uma casa (a house)- Uns (masculine plural) uns livros (some books)- Umas (feminine plural) umas casas (some houses)

Example: Os livros que tenho estão em casa de um amigo (The books I have are in a house of a friend)

References

• FOLSE, Keith S.; Keys to teaching Grammar to English Language Learners, a practical handbook. 2012. United States of America.

• http://mylanguages.org/portuguese_articles.php