Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham and I'm so pleased you've decided to join me today to learn about articles and possessive pronouns.

Now, these are words which you probably use all the time, every day, without even thinking about it, but by learning a little bit more about how they work and how we use them correctly, we are going to be able to make our writing even more accurate.

Let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called, "Determiners: articles and possessive pronouns review." From our unit called, "Key grammar terminology, including determiners and fronted adverbials." By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to understand when to use an article and when to use a possessive pronoun in a sentence context.

Now, knowing what determiners are is interesting in itself and it's a useful skill, but in this lesson we're going to go beyond that and we're going to think about which determiners we should use, when, and how we can use determiners to introduce new ideas to our writing.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your term.

Determiner, noun, article and possessive pronoun.

Well done.

Now, a determiner is a word that introduces a noun in a clause or a phrase and a noun is a naming word for people, places, and things, as I'm sure you know.

An article is a type of determiner that shows how specific the noun is that's being introduced and a possessive pronoun is a type of determiner that shows that a noun belongs to a another noun.

Now, some of that might seem a bit confusing right now, but I promise we'll get to it during the lesson.

Let's take a look at our lesson outline.

We're going to start by identifying articles and possessive pronouns and then we'll move on to using them in some sentence writing.

Now we can tell the word class, the type of word, of a word that we're looking at by thinking about what it does in a sentence.

So a noun we know, is a naming word for people, places, and things.

So a noun is a type of word class.

Here are some examples of sentences including nouns.

"When the noise became a nuisance, we shut the windows." Well, noise nuisance and windows are all nouns.

They're things in that sentence.

"Because your pet is so aggressive, I recommend keeping it in its cage." Well, pet and cage are both nouns.

They're both things.

"The door was open, but your mum asked me to wait for a minute." Well, door mum and minute are all nouns.

So in all these sentences, these are common nouns.

They're things.

See if you can spot the nouns in these sentences.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, the nouns are pronunciation and word.

Those are both things.

In B, the nouns are shoulder and bruise.

And in C, that noun is community.

So sometimes a noun might be a thing which we can't necessarily touch.

Our community might be kind of an idea, rather than something we can touch, but it's still a noun.

Really well done if you spotted all those.

Now, another word class, other than a noun, is a determiner.

And these are words that introduce a noun in a clause or a phrase.

Let me show you what I mean.

Here are some sentences.

"We broke the system." "I heard an interruption." "What is your temperature?" "Join me on my yacht." Now in these sentences we have these nouns, system, interruption, temperature and yacht.

These are all nouns, they're things.

Now look at the word that comes before these nouns, the system, an interruption, your temperature, my yacht, all of these are determiners.

They're words that are introducing the noun.

We couldn't just say we broke system.

I heard interruption, In English, we have that determiner an interruption, the system, to introduce that noun.

And here's a really helpful little clue for us, determiners are words that help us determine, work out, which noun we are talking about.

So determiners help us determine the noun we're thinking about.

It's the system, it's an interruption, it's your temperature.

Not just temperature in general, we've determined using that determiner, we're talking about your temperature.

So true or false, in the clause as we chop the vegetables, the word the is a determinant.

Pause the video and decide.

You're right, that is true! Now see if you can explain why.

Pause the video and decide which justification is the right one.

Well done, it's B.

So that word the introduces the noun vegetables in that clause to tell us which vegetables it is we are talking about.

Now, there are several different types of determiners.

You might have already spotted some already.

One type of determiner is an article and we are lucky, because there are only three articles in the English language.

We've got a, an, and the.

And these articles come before the noun they introduce, here are some examples.

"You can blame the government or you could blame the community." "We gave him an opportunity to explain and he said it was a mistake." I've put the articles in purple there you can see.

So look how that article the introduces the noun government.

The article the introduces the noun community.

the article an introduces the noun opportunity.

And the article A introduces the noun mistake.

So the article comes before the noun to introduce it.

Now can you find all the articles in these sentences? Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, we have the article A, before signature and the article the before form.

In B we have the introducing queue and an introducing individual.

In C we have the introducing classroom and we have a introducing table.

So notice how the article comes before the noun it introduces.

Great job.

Now sometimes we'll find one or two adjectives between the article and the noun it introduces.

Let me show you.

"We had a lovely kind neighbour before we moved house." "When your awkward situation was over, I was blushing fiercely." "You might choose a physical job when you're older." Look how in the first example we have the article A, then we have the two adjectives lovely and kind.

And then we have our noun neighbour that the article A is introducing.

So a neighbour is what we could say, instead we've said a lovely kind neighbour.

We've popped those adjectives between the article and the noun.

In the second one, we've got the adjective awkward, between the article the and the noun situation.

And in the final one, we've got the adjective physical between the article A and the noun job.

So it's still an article, it's still introducing the noun.

We've just put that adjective or adjectives in between, to add a little bit more detail about what that job is like, what that situation is like.

So I wonder if you can find the articles and the nouns they introduce in these sentences.

So you should see a pair, an article, and a noun, but there might be some adjectives in between the two of them.

So they might be tricky to spot.

You should see two pairs in each sentence.

Pause the video and see if you can spot them.

Okay, let's have a look.

So in A, we've got A and rumble, separated by those adjectives low and loud.

And then we've got the and volcano, separated by active.

In B, the article the introduces the noun government, and we've got a really tricky one here.

We've got the article an, it's introducing from the noun leader.

Now we wouldn't say an leader, would we? We'd say a leader, but because we've got that adjective experienced in between, we say an experience leader.

We'll talk about that more, later in the lesson.

And C the introducing system and the introduces head teacher.

So we have our article and our noun separated by some adjectives.

Great job if you spotted those tricky pairs.

Okay, we've talked about articles, they're a type of determiner.

Now another type of determiner is a possessive pronoun and they also introduce nouns in a clause.

Now there are several different possessive pronouns in English and these are the ones which are determiners.

My, your, his, her, their, it's, and our.

And what they do is to show us who the noun belongs to.

Possession means something belongs to you.

If you possess something, you have it.

So possessive pronouns show us who the noun belongs to.

"She injured her muscles." "Is your family coming to his birthday?" Here, the possessive pronoun her, introduces the noun muscles to tell us it's her muscles, the muscles she possesses.

In the second one, the possessive pronoun your introduces the noun family.

It's the family that we possess.

And then, the possessive pronoun his, introduces the noun birthday.

It's his birthday, the birthday he possesses.

So those possessive pronouns, her, your, and his are introducing the noun to tell us who that noun belongs to.

So just like with the articles, we can find an adjective between the possessive pronoun and the noun it introduces.

"I told my embarrassing story, but no-one laughed." "This is your golden opportunity!" "Our local restaurant serves Bengali food." So the first one, I've got that possessive pronoun my, it's introducing the noun story, but I've got that word embarrassing as an adjective in between.

In the second one, I've got the possessive pronoun your, introducing the noun opportunity.

But I've got the adjective golden in between.

And in the last one, I've got the possessive pronoun our, introducing the noun restaurant, with the adjective local in between.

So just like we had with the articles, we may have an adjective in-between the possessive pronoun and the noun.

So can you identify the possessive pronouns that are determiners in these sentences and the nouns they're introducing? So it should be a pair of words, one possessive pronoun and one noun.

Pause the video and see if you can spot them.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, we have the possessive pronoun our introducing the noun cemetery.

In B the possessive pronoun your, introduces the noun behaviour.

And in C the possessive pronoun her, introduces the noun shoulder.

And look how each time we've got an adjective in between the possessive pronoun and the noun.

Local, aggressive and injured.

Well done if you managed to find those.

Okay, let's do our first task of this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences and I want you to identify the determiners in each sentence.

And remember, we know two types of determiner now, so we're going to label them up.

I want you to label every article with A, and remember, there are only three A, an, and the.

I want you to label all the possessive pronouns with PP.

And remember those are words which tell us who the noun belongs to.

And I want you to circle each time, the noun that it's introducing.

And remember, there might be some adjectives in between, to make it a bit more tricky.

Here are our sentences.

"Gliding over the choppy waves, a vast glistening yacht zoomed past us." "When our community works together, we make a huge difference." "The smell of baking bread, which is my favourite scent, filled the air." "Mrs. Begum ignored the interruption and she continued to read us an incredible poem." So pause the video and label up those determiners as either articles or possessive pronouns and circle the nouns they're introducing.

Because remember, that's what a determiner does, it introduces a noun in a clause or a phrase.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, so you can see I've labelled all the determiners in purple here.

So we're gonna label them up for which type they are and what noun they introduce.

In number one the is an article introducing the noun waves and his is a possessive pronoun, introducing yacht.

In number two, our is a possessive pronoun introducing community and A is an article introducing difference.

In number three, the is an article introducing smell, no adjective in between those two.

And my is a possessive pronoun introducing scent.

Now there's a third one there, the is an article introducing air.

And number four, there is a possessive pronoun introducing, interruption.

And finally, A, is an article introducing poem.

Really well done if you managed to spot those pairs of determiners and nouns, because sometimes we have those adjectives in between, to make it a bit harder.

Great job.

Now we're going to move to the second part of our lesson, where we're going to try and use those articles and possessive pronouns in some sentences.

Let's make a start.

Now, first of all, let's recap the special rule we need to follow to know when to use the article A, and when to use the article an to introduce a noun.

And I'm sure you'll know this already, but let's recap it quickly.

When the word after the article starts with a vowel letter or a vowel sound we use an.

Now these are our vowel letters in English, A, E, I, O, U.

But notice I've also said we need to think about the vowel sound and I'll show you what I mean in a second.

So here are some examples of using the article an, when the word after it begins with a vowel letter.

"An amateur boxer." Amateur begins with A.

"An embarrassing situation." Embarrassing begins with the vowel E.

"An immediate stop." "An opportunity to learn.

"An underrated player." Look how the word after the article has started with a vowel, A, E, I, O, U.

So we've used the article an instead of A, and we can tell by how it sounds, it doesn't sound right, to say, a embarrassing situation, a opportunity to learn.

We say, an opportunity to learn and it sounds much better.

But here's a tricky example, "An honour to be here." Now honour starts with H, but the H in honour is silent and it's actually an (Presenter vocalising) sound at the start of the word.

That's a vowel sound.

So because there's a vowel sound at the start of that word, we say an honour.

And we can tell, because it sounds right, it's hard to say a honour to be here.

We say an honour.

Every other time we use a as the article.

So let's see if we can use that rule.

Decide whether each gap should have the article A, or the article an, to introduce the noun that follows it.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

We would say, "The average person will not have a clue." Clue starts with a consonant, it's not a vowel.

For B, we'd say "Tiptoeing down the stairs, I heard a familiar creek from the fifth step." Familiar starts with F.

That's not a vowel.

"It was an awkward situation, but we made it through." Awkward starts with, A, that's a vowel letter.

And for D, "When Mrs. Begum gave me an achievement award, I thanked her politely." Achievement starts with A that's a vowel letter.

So we used the article an.

Great job.

Now what's the purpose of articles? Well articles help us to show how specific we are being about the noun we're introducing.

Are we talking about something generally or a very specific one of that thing? Let me show you.

We use A or an when we aren't talking about something very specific.

For instance, "Pass me a dictionary." I don't mind which dictionary you pass me, I just want a dictionary.

We use the when we're talking about a specific noun.

So I'd say "Pass me the dictionary." So maybe there's a dictionary over on the side and I want you to pass me that one.

I use the as the article there to be much more specific.

Here's another example.

"We'll go to a restaurant to celebrate your birthday." I'm not talking about a specific restaurant.

Maybe there's lots we could choose from, but I could say, "We'll go to the restaurant to celebrate your birthday." So maybe there's only one restaurant in our town and we know that's the one we're going to go to, we're being specific.

"I think you're ready to enter a competition." Any competition, not a particular one, versus, "I think you're ready to enter the competition." Maybe it's a competition we've talked about for years and now you are finally ready.

So A or an is not very specific and the is being specific about the noun we're introducing.

So let's test that out.

Can you decide whether the, A, or an is the best article to use in each of these sentences? Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

We would say, "I don't understand the explanation you've given." We'd say, "When I'm older, I want to be a secretary." "She decided to complain to the government." It would sound strange, to say she decided to complain to a government.

We would always complain to our own government.

So we would say the government.

D though, is a tricky one.

We could say, "We have an opportunity to make a difference." But we could also say, "We have the opportunity to make a difference." So sometimes we can use either A or the or an in a sentence.

It depends what makes sense.

Really well done if you got this.

Now we do need to choose the right determiner to help us to introduce a noun.

They won't always all work.

So sometimes it'll be an article A, an, the, and sometimes it'll be a possessive pronoun like my, your, his, her, it's, our and their.

That will be used when something belongs to someone.

Here are some example sentences.

"Blank neighbour is kind, but we don't talk often." "Blank equipment was brand new and they looked after it carefully." "The doctor provided treatment for blank bruised muscles." I wonder what determiners might work in those gaps.

Well in the first one we could say, "My neighbour is kind, but we don't talk often." There I've used a possessive pronoun.

Or I could say, "Our neighbour is kind." Both of those possessive pronouns would work.

In number two, I could say "The equipment was brand new." That would be an article.

I could say, "Their equipment was brand new," a possessive pronoun.

Both of those would make sense, depending on who the equipment belongs to.

And for number three, there's lots of options.

I could say, "The doctor provided treatment for my bruised muscles," or, "The bruised muscles," or, "His bruised muscles," or, "Her bruised muscles." Articles and possessive pronouns will both work there, depending on what I'm trying to say.

Now you try.

Can you choose any appropriate determiner to fill in each of the gaps in these sentences? And I've given you a list of them at the top there.

Pause the video and decide what might be appropriate in each.

And everyone could have different answers for lots of these.

Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

In A, I could say, and yours might be different, "Stepping into the room, I put my bag on it's peg." But I could have said, "My bag on my peg." That would be fine too.

For B, I could say, "As the programme began, Dad put down his book." for C, "I could say Mrs Begum sat down at an empty table and she ate her lunch." That would be a perfect way of introducing each of those nouns.

Really good job if you've got something similar.

Now we can add, as we saw before, adjectives between determiners and the nouns they introduce.

So here's my sentence.

"As I walked through the cemetery, I looked up at the sky." I've got the article the introducing the noun cemetery and the article the introducing the noun sky.

So in between the and cemetery, I could add some adjectives.

I could say, "As I walked through the deserted cemetery, I looked up at the dull starless sky." So look, each time in between the determiner and the noun, I've added some adjectives.

Deserted, dull, and starless.

And that makes a noun phrase, which is a bit more exciting.

"The deserted cemetery, the dull starless sky." So I've added those adjectives to give my reader a certain impression of the cemetery and the sky.

Okay, let's practise that.

Here's another sentence.

"I tried to read the symbols using my dictionary." Where can we add adjectives between the determiners and the nouns in this sentence? And what adjectives could we add? Pause the video and see what you can do.

Okay, let's take a look.

Hopefully you spotted that here, we have the article the introducing the noun symbols.

And here we have the possessive pronoun my introducing the noun dictionary.

So we could add some adjectives in between the determiners and the nouns.

I could say, the mysterious symbols, the ancient symbols, the fascinating symbols, the unusual symbols.

And I could say my special dictionary, my battered dictionary, my dust covered dictionary, my tatty, old, dictionary.

Got two adjectives there.

So then the sentence could read, "I tried to read the mysterious symbols using my battered dictionary." And we've created a much more interesting sentence by adding those adjectives between the determiners and the nouns.

Great job, if you've got something similar.

Now we can also complete a clause with our own ideas, introducing a new noun if we're given a determiner.

Let me show you what I mean.

"When the war ended, the soldier returned to his," I've got a possessive pronoun there his.

So we can use that possessive pronoun his to introduce some new nouns and noun phrases.

I could say, "The soldier returned to his old job," or, "To his normal routine." Here I've got, "As the sun set, I gazed up at the," there's my article, I can use that article to introduce the new nouns and noun phrases.

I could say, "At the bright orange sky, at the wispy clouds." And here I've got, "I better work hard or my," My is our possessive pronoun and I can use that to extend the sentence, I could say, "Or my rapport will be bad, or my knowledge won't increase." So each time here, I've added in a new noun after that determiner.

So can you think of a way to complete each of these clauses by introducing a new noun, using the determiner that you've been given.

So you've been given the, a and her at the end of these groups of words, so pause the video and think, what would you introduce afterwards? Have a go.

Okay, let's take a look.

Here are some ideas.

Remember, yours will look different, but so long as you've got a noun after that determiner it should work.

I could say, "Before I'm 40, I want to visit the Taj Mahal." I could say, "Looking up at the sky, I saw a bright shooting star." So I've got the adjective bright before my noun, shooting star there.

And for C, I could say "Mum was furious because I had forgotten her birthday." So each time I've used that determiner, the, A, and her to introduce a new noun to my sentence, well done if you did the same.

Now you may have heard of a non-finite-ing clause.

That's a clause, a group of words containing a verb, that starts with an ing progressive tense word.

For instance, stepping into the room.

And it's a type of subordinate clause, because that couldn't be a full sentence on its own.

And we can use a determiner to introduce a new noun into one of those non-finite-ing clauses.

Let me show you.

I could say, "Stepping into the blank, I put up my umbrella." Now, "I put up my umbrella," is a main clause.

It makes complete sense.

And look how I've got stepping, that ing, progressive tense verb there.

So stepping into the something is going to be my non-finite-ing clause there, at the start of that sentence.

So I could say "Stepping into the dark, rainy, street, I put up my umbrella." I've introduced the noun street using that determiner the.

In the second example, I've got a determiner A, I could say "Gazing at a shiny scooter, she counted her pocket money." I've got that non-finite clause, "Gazing at a shiny scooter, starting with my ing progressive tense verb.

And I've got the main clause, "She counted her pocket money." I could do the same for the last one, "Attaching the badge to my school uniform, I beamed proudly." I've used the possessive pronoun my to introduce school uniform in that non-finite clause.

"Attaching the badge to my school uniform." So I've introduced those three nouns there and I've introduced them inside a non-finite clause, which has been followed by a main clause that could be a sentence on its own.

Now you try.

I want you to complete the non-finite-ing clause in these sentences by introducing a new noun, using the determiner that I'm going to give you.

And don't forget, you can also add some adjectives between the determiner and the noun if you want.

"So racing down the blank, we panted loudly." Pause the video and decide what noun you're going to introduce using that determiner the.

Have a go.

Okay, here are some ideas.

You could have said, "Racing down the long, busy, street, we panted loudly." Or, "The narrow, overgrown path." Or, "The steep hill." Each of those times I've introduced a noun, street, path, and hill, with some adjectives, long, busy, narrow, overgrown, and steep.

And I've done that using that determiner the.

Really well done if you managed the same.

Okay, let's do our final task for this lesson.

I want you to use the determiners you've been given, to introduce a new noun and any adjectives you wish, in each sentence and complete the clause.

So here are our sentences and I've put the determiners in green.

So you have to think of what you want to put afterwards.

And it must include a noun, but it could also include some adjectives as well.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, here are some example sentences.

Here's how I've used that determiner to introduce a noun.

You might have chosen different nouns, that's okay.

But look at the ones I've got and see if you have something similar.

I've said, "After football practise, we thoroughly washed our muddy kits." For B, "As the storm raged, we saw lightning strike the old, withered tree." "Stepping into the dark cave, we spotted a bat hanging from the rocks." "The song, which was my favourite piece of music, played as we ate." "You can give me an explanation or you can lose your playtime and your lunchtime." "Waiting for a train to arrive, we stood silently on the platform." So each time I've used those determiners to introduce a noun.

And sometimes I've added adjectives as well, like muddy and withered there, to increase the interest for my reader.

Really good job if you manage something similar.

Okay, let's review what we've learned this lesson.

We learned that determiners are words that introduce nouns in clauses or phrases.

We learned that articles are one type of determiner.

They can help us to show how specific we're being about the noun we're talking about.

We learned that possessive pronouns are another type of determiner and they help us show that one noun belongs to another.

And the determiner always comes before the noun it introduces, but there may be adjectives in between the determiner and the noun.

Really well done for getting through this lesson, so well.

You've done a fantastic job and I hope to see you again in a future lesson.