Australia Network - Living English - EPISODE 14: Are there some kangaroos?

1. The & A - 2. A & An - 3. Is There / Are There - 4. Sequence Words

	1. THE & A
	We call the words a and the articles.
	We use a and the before nouns. Here is the car. Here is a car.
	We use them before adjectives and nouns. Here is the blue car. Here is a blue car.
	*the*
	We use the if there is more than one thing. Look at the cars.
	STEVE Well, the kangaroos are just over there.
	We say the car if we know something about it: Here is the car we saw before.
	We use the for definite things. Some things are always definite. the Sydney Opera House the Yangtze River
	We use the when there is only one of something. She is the boss.
	a
	We can only use a for singular things. Here is a car.
	STEVE Two, please. And a bag of food.
	We use a for something that is not definite. Here’s a car I haven’t seen before.
	ANNE I really want to hold a koala. Is there a koala here?
	We use a for one thing out of a number of things. There’s a red car over there. (but there are other red cars in the world)
	STEVE There’s a café just over there.
	We use a when saying general things about something. He is a man My cat is a Siamese.

	2. A & AN
	We use an instead of a before words that start with a vowel sound. These are the short vowel sounds.
	a an apple e an egg i an igloo o an ostrich u an umbrella
	These are the long vowel sounds. A an alien E an eagle I an island O an opal U is a consonant sound. a university a European And note: an apple But a red apple We pronounce a with a long vowel sound when we want to emphasise something. This is a fantastic website. pronouncing 'the'
	We pronounce it *'thee'* with words that start with a vowel sound. a the ant A the apricots e the eggs E the eagle i the issue I the ice-cream O the open door o the otters u the ugly truth
	We pronounce it 'the' with words that start with a consonant sound. the university the government the police the TV the show
	We sometimes use the ‘thee’ pronunciation for emphasis. This is the best steak I’ve ever had.

	3. IS THERE / ARE THERE
	We say are or is before there in questions.
	We use is there for asking about single things. Is there an elephant? Is there enough food?
	ANNE Is there somewhere to have lunch?
	We use are there for asking about more then one thing. Are there tigers here? Are there enough cars to take us all?
	ANNE Are there some kangaroos?

	4. SEQUENCE WORDS
	These are some words we use for the order in which we do things. We start with first. And then we can use words such as next then after followed by We finish with finally.
	Here’s how to make a sandwich. First, get two slices of bread and spread butter on them. Then add a piece of lettuce, followed by a slice of cheese. After that you close the sandwich. Finally, you eat it.