ARTICLES AND SPEECH

THE ARTICLES

INTRODUCTION

Articles are words that are used before nouns to add some meaning to the sentence that they occur. The English language has two types of articles. These are;

• Indefinite articles
• Definite article

TYPES OF ARTICLES

INDEFINITE ARTICLES

These articles are so called because they usually leave indefinite the person, or thing spoken of. Indefinite articles are only 2 (two) in number and they are: a and an.

For example

          1. A doctor         means any doctor.

          2. An apple      means any apple.

Whether one uses the article a or an depends on the sound with which the following word begins i.e. the article “a” is used before consonant sounds while the consonant “an” is used before vowel sounds.

Examples

3. A clock/ a dog/ a man/ a church etc.

4. An orange/an umbrella/an article, an edge etc.

NOTE:

 The choice between the articles a/an is determined by the sound and not the letter of the word following the article. Before a word beginning with a vowel sound ‘an’ is used; as, an ass, an enemy, an ink-pad, an orange, an heir, an hour, an honest man etc.

Notice that the words hour, honest, heir begin with a vowel sound, as the initial consonant /h/ is not pronounced.

Before a word beginning with a consonant sound the article a is used; as, a boy, a reindeer, a university student, a union, a European, a ewe, a unicorn, a useful article etc.

Notice also that the words (university, union etc.) begin with consonant sounds.

Uses of indefinite Articles 

We use the indefinite article in the following cases;

i.                    To mention a person/thing for the first time; as,

 a) A strange man killed the house girl.

 b) I saw a car.

 c) He is driving a horse.

ii.                  When a person does not want to refer to a particular place, thing or person; as,

1. When you get to Mwanza try to find a good hotel.
2. Can you lend me a pen?
3. I studied at a university in the UK.

iii.                Before singular countable nouns; as,

1. An elephant destroyed our house.
2. A Maasai warrior was killed yesterday.

iv.                To single out an individual as the representative of a class or a group of items

1. A student should always be alert in class.
2. A goat is a cheeky animal.

v.                  To change a proper noun into a common noun

1. A Solomon came to judgment.
2. A Judas was stoned to death.

vi.                with nouns of nationality

a.       He is a Kenyan

b.      She is a Tanzanian

c.       He is an Irishman

vii.              before some fractions

a.       he gave me a quarter of his profits

b.      she gave me a half  of her lessons

viii.            Before some weight and measures

a.       He bought me a kilo of meat

b.      The kitenge is a meter long

ix.                When stating  speed

a.       He was driving 90km an hour

x.                  When stating profession and occupation

a.       I am a teacher

b.      He is an engineer.

Omission of the indefinite article

It is not a must to always accompany nouns with articles. The indefinite is usually omitted;

i.                    Before names of substances and abstract nouns (uncountable nouns).

1. Sugar is bad for your health.
2. Gold is a precious metal.
3. Honesty is the best policy.

ii.                  Before most proper nouns (names of people, names of continents, countries, cities, mountains, lakes etc.

1. John (name of a person)
2. Africa (name of a continent)
3. Tanzania (name of a country)
4. Mwanza (name of a city)
5. Mt. Kilimanjaro (name of a mountain)
6. Lake Victoria (name of a lake)

iii.                Before names of meals ;

1. Dinner is ready.
2. What time do you love your lunch?

iv.                Before names of languages;

1. We are studying Dholuo.
2. We speak Kiswahili at home.
3. She is fluent in Kisukuma.

v.                  Before names of relations e.g. father, mother, aunt, uncle,

1. Father wants his food on the table
2. Aunt has come to visit us.

vi.                Before schools, colleges, churches, hospital, market places etc. when the place is visited or used for their primary purpose;

1. I learnt French at college.
2. They go to church to worship.
3. My sick son is still in hospital.

 

DEFINITE ARTICLE

English only has one definite article – “the”. It is so called because it normally points out some particular persons or things. For example;

1. He saw the doctor. (Meaning some particular doctor not any doctor.)
2. I met the lunatic. (Meaning that the lunatic is known to the speaker and hearer.)

Use of the definite article

The definite article “the” is used;

1. The definite article can be used to refer back to a person or thing that has already been mentioned.

1. There are several books available but the book you want is out of print.
2. John told me about Uhuru Park. Can we visit the park today?
3. Mrs. Otieno gave birth to a baby girl. The girl cried a lot.

2.  The definite article is also used before some proper nouns e.g.; names of deserts, seas, group of islands, chains of mountains etc.

           a. The Nile is the longest river in Africa.                    

           b. The Sahara is a desert found in Africa.

          c. The Slave sea is a unique sea not known by people.            

          d. Have you been to the West Indies?

3. The definite article is used to identify someone or something as the only one of its kind or as unique of their kind; as

    a. The sun

    b. The ocean

    c. The earth

   d. The sky

   e. The sea

4. Before superlatives and nouns preceded by words by words such as only, first, second etc.

a)      The highest mountain in Africa is Mt. Kilimanjaro

b)      He was the first man to land on the moon

c)      He was the only lady in the meeting.

5. The definite article can also be used to indicate the unique quality of something or someone.

         a. Midland hotel is the hotel to be in when you visit Mwanza.

         b. The Kubamba is the show to watch every Sunday on Citizen Television.

6. When referring to the playing of musical instruments such as the guitar, the piano etc. e.g.

a)      He plays the guitar

b)      Martin is learning how to play the piano

c)      Moses is playing the drum

7. Before compass directions only when followed by the word of or preceded by the word to. e.g.

a)      The south of Tanzania is warmer than the North

b)      The bank is situated to the south east of Mwanza.

8. When referring to someone or something that a particular community is familiar with e.g.

a)      The president is out of the country

b)      The government has imposed a curfew

c)      Tanzania is the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

REPETITION OF THE ARTICLE

An article is repeated to distinguish the nouns in a sentence:

Compare the sentences

a)      I have a black and white dog

     b)  I have a black and a white dog

Sentence (a) means a dog that is partially black and partially white.

Sentence (b) means two dogs, one black and the other white.

Hence when two or more adjective’s qualify the same noun, the article is used before the first adjective only; but when they qualify different nouns then the article is normally used before each adjective.

Compare these sentences once more:

(a) The secretary and   treasurer is   absent.

(b) The secretary and the treasurer are absent.

The first sentence clearly indicates that the posts of secretary and treasurer are held by one person.

The repetition of the article in the second sentence indicates   that the two posts are held by two different persons.

Therefore, when two or more connected nouns refer to the same person or thing, the article is used before the first noun only; but when two or more connected nouns refer to different persons or things, the article is used before each noun.    

In expressing a comparison, if two nouns refer to the same person or thing, the article is used before the first noun only; as,

1. He is a better mechanic than clerk.
2. He is a better poet than novelist.
3. But if they refer to different persons or things, the article must be used with each noun;
4. He is a better mechanic than a clerk.
5. He would make a better statesman than a philosopher.

Fill in the blanks with a/an or the

a)      I have never seen such _______ angry man

b)     The lady was driving________ European car

c)      That was ______ honest answer.

d)     That was _____awful thing to say.

e)      Mary was ____only one I talked to.

f)       He knows how to play_____trumpet.

g)      He wants to climb______ Ruwenzori mountains

DIRECT SPEECH TO INDIRECT SPEECH – PRONOUN

According to Thomson A.J and Martinet A.V.A (1985) Speech means means a talk or a dialogue between two persons. A speech can be reported in form of direct or indirect speech.

Direct speech

According to Murthy . J.D.(1998) direct speech is the repetition of words of a person exactly in his or her own words to someone.

According to Thomson. A. J and Martinet A. V (1985) direct speech, is the way of reporting by repeating the original speaker’s exact words.

         Therefore we can define direct speech as the way of a sentence ( or several sentences) that reports speech or thought in its original form as phrased by the original speaker.

Examples of Direct speech

1.     “I will be here tomorrow” Asha said.

2.     Mungo said,’ I know your my best friend.”

Rules of Direct speech

        I.            In direct speech, quotation marks (or inverted comma (‘)) are put around what has actually been spoken or quoted. The quotation marks enclose other punctuation such as commas (,) full stop (.) question marks (?) and exclamation marks (!).

     II.            Quotation marks may be single (‘) or double (“) and are placed high above first and last words of a quotation with a capital letter.

  III.             If you start with He said, a comma must come after he said and what is quoted must start with a capital letter.

Example: He said, ‘Everybody must work.’ But if He said comes at the end, the comma must before the closing quotation mark.

Example; ‘Everybody must work,’ he said.

 IV.             If the quotation ends with an exclamation mark (!) or a question mark(?) a comma is not       used and the word that follows must not start with a capital letter.

Example; “ Is there a bar around?” the thief asked.

                 “Am I intelligent!” he said.

    V.            If there is a quote within a quote we use double quotes (“ “) for the second quotation

Example; Rukia said, “ Just as I was leaving, a voice shouted, “ hands up.”

Indirect speech

According to Thomson J. A . Martinet A.V 1985 define indirect speech means we give the exact meaning of remark or a speech without necessary using the speaker’s exact words.

Example: Indirect speech:  She said that she had lost her umbrella

Therefore, indirect speech is the way of reporting what someone said without quoting his/her exact words. It sometimes be referred as reported speech.

Example;

Indirect; Elias said that he was very  busy then.

       PRONOUNS

According to Michael Kadeghe (2010).Pronouns are words which stand for noun.

According to Rweyongeza et al (2010).Pronouns are words that stand instead of nouns.

Pronouns change when a sentence is transformed from direct to indirect speech. Examples of the type of pronouns which change when sentence is transformed from direct to indirect speech are personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative and reflexive pronouns.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

 Personal pronouns are those which help us to identify the speaker and they can be divided into three groups:

A)  FIRST PERSONAL PRONOUNS,

 In the first personal pronoun, pronouns change according to the subject of the reporting verbs in the indirect speech

For instance;

I. Direct speech: He said, “I am busy”

    Indirect speech: He said that he was busy. 

II. Direct speech: She said, “I live in NewYork”.

     Indirect speech: She said that she lived in New York.

III. Direct speech: I said, “I will be late”.

      Indirect speech: I said that I would be late.

NB: First person pronoun in reported speech i.e. I, we, me, us, mine, or our does not change if the pronoun (subject) of reporting is also personal pronoun i.e. I or we.

Example:

I.                   Direct speech: I said, “I write a letter”

            Indirect speech: I said that I wrote a letter.

II.                Direct speech: We said, “We completed our work”

             Indirect speech: We said that we completed our work.

B) SECOND PERSONAL PRONOUN.

In the second personal pronoun, a pronoun change according to the object of the reporting verb in the indirect speech.

For example:

I.                   Direct speech: He said to me, “you have to come with me”

             Indirect speech: He said to me that I had to go with him.

II.                Direct speech: She said to him, “you are intelligent”

             Indirect speech: she said to him that he was intelligent.

III.             Direct speech: where are you going now?  His wife asked                     

             Indirect speech: his wife asked him that where he was going then

NB:

In the third personal pronoun, the pronoun will not change in the indirect speech such as he, she and they

For example

I. Direct speech: He said, “She is a good girl”

   Indirect speech: he said that she was a good girl

II.Direct speech: they said, “He will come”

    Indirect speech: they said that he would come

III.Direct speech: she said, “They have invited us”

Indirect speech: she said that they had invited them

Demonstrative pronouns

Are the pronouns used to point out person or things we talk about.

Example:  That, this, these and those

Demonstrative pronoun changes when sentences are changed from direct speech to indirect speech as follows

Direct speech: Amos said, “This is the book I bought”

Indirect speech: Amos said that, that was the book      he bought

Direct speech: “These are my father’s houses” Mumabu said

Indirect speech:    Mumabu said that those were his father’s houses.

NB.

The demonstrative pronouns that and those are remain unchanged when sentences is transformed from direct to indirect speech.

Example:

I.Direct speech: “That is my bag” Dorice said to me

  Indirect speech: Dorice said to me that that was her bag.

II.Direct speech: Kingu said, “Those are books I bought”

    Indirect speech: Kingu said that those were books he bought.

 REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

These are pronoun with self or selves to reflect the action of the very on the subject

For instance, my +self-myself

                       Your+self-yourself

                        Your+selves-yourselves

                        Our+selves-ourselves        

The reflexive pronouns also change when a sentence transformed from direct to indirect speech. For example:

I.Direct speech: Thomas said, “You must know yourself.”

   Indirect speech: Thomas said that I must knew myself.

I.Direct speech: “we hurt ourselves” Neema said.

  Indirect speech; Neema said that they hurted themselves

II.Direct speech: “I will do it myself” Pendo said

   Indirect speech; Pendo said that she would do it herself

NB.Some pronouns do not change when the sentences is transformed from direct to indirect speech such as relative pronouns, numerical pronoun , reciprocal pronouns , interrogative pronoun and indefinite pronoun.

Example:              

I.Direct speech: “where are you going?”  she asked.

   Indirect speech: She asked me where I was going.

II.Direct speech: Alfred asked, “Can any body help her?”

   Indirect speech: Alfred  asked if anybody can help her

II.Direct speech: Madam said, “They cheated each other”

   Indirect speech: Madam said that they had cheated each other

III.Direct speech: Juma said, “He came third in the exam”

     Indirect speech:  Juma said that he went third in exam

IV.Direct speech: “I met Gerald who had just returned” Asha told me

      Indirect speech: Asha told me that she met Gerald who had just returned.