Discover Indefinite Articles

So, first the bad news…

There’s a lot of weird things about articles that our students want to know. There will never be enough tables and lists in the world to explain every rule completely and clearly. And your students will never retain all that information.

Now, the good news…

This resource can help your A0 / A1 students to discover, practice and retain a few of the most basic and useful rules when it comes to indefinite articles. In this printable resource we focus on:

• adjective + noun order;
• a/an based on sound;
• the use of any with negative statements and questions.

How to use it?

• Print enough 2-sided sheets of page 1 and 2 for each individual, pair or group;
• Print and cut out 1 copy of page 3 for each individual, pair or group (or have them cut it out for themselves!);
• Start with page 1 where students will describe the two characters by putting the pictures and words in the boxes to describe what they have;
• Once they finish, hand out a 2-sided copy of pages 4-5. This contains the worksheet and the corrections.
• Let students do the worksheets individually;
• Once complete, have them check their answers with the back side of the page and answer any questions they might have. For example, why do we say “an NBA poster” -> because we pronounce the letters in the acronym and “N” starts with a vowel sound, so we say an NBA / MBA / SOS etc. However, we would say “a TSA agent” for example.
• Once it is all said and done, students can describe one more time Jean-Michel and Jeremiah by describing things they don’t have. Or, come up with your own pairing of celebrities, students, etc.