Grammar references acknowledge some/Ø only inconsistently. This invisible morpheme expresses a measurement or quantity notion of some imprecise amount rather like some or a lot of (e.g., we need rules are necessary). Master (1997) indicates that Ø is more frequent than the, making Ø English’s most frequent free morpheme. It is possible to have no overt article with non-count nouns or plural nouns (e.g., we need Ø advice Ø rules are necessary).

Additionally, we may consider the null article, indicating it visually with Ø. The definite article the is the most common word in the English language if we combine occurrences of a and an, the indefinite article is the fourth most common (Sinclair, 1991). A small pilot study was also accomplished to indicate the potential pedagogical utility of this strategy for teaching and learning articles in English.Įnglish Grammar, English as a Second Language, Language Pedagogy, English Article System, Etymology, Diagnostics, Mnemonics This paper advances such diagnostics and mnemonics drawing upon the etymology of the articles for inspiration. A valuable pedagogical tool could be a simple set of diagnostics to check article patterns rapidly within their context of use coupled with mnemonics to help to summarize and recall various typical usage patterns. Extensive lists of rules and exceptions have been advanced to describe how to use articles, but such lists can be more confusing than helpful. Articles are non-salient and there is much idiosyncrasy in their patterns of use. Received 5 July 2016 accepted 12 August 2016 published 15 August 2016Īccurate use of the article system in English is a common problem even for advanced students of English as a second language (ESL). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).

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