Hi, everyone, I'm Jade.In this lesson today, we're looking at the rules for articles, but more specifically, the rules where we have exceptions in using articles.
大家好，我是 Jade。在今天的课程中，我们要来讲讲冠词的规则，更确切地来说，是冠词的例外用法的规则。
So when I'm observing people's English, all the time I'm hearing the same mistakes with articles.
我观察别人说英语的时候总是听到他们在冠词方面出现同样的错误。
So what you will learn to do in this lesson is how to avoid those really, really common mistakes I hear all the time.
所以你们在这节课中会学到如何避免那些非常非常常见的错误，那些我总是听到的错误。
If you're somebody who just doesn't use articles at all because in your native language, you don't have articles, I understand it can be really, really hard to start using them.
如果你属于那种根本不用冠词的人，因为在你的母语中没有冠词，我明白开始用冠词对你来说可能非常非常难。
But they are an important aspect of grammar, and you should be using them.
但它们是语法中重要的一部分，你应该要用上它们。
So if you watch this lesson, you'll get some tips for using articles, where you need them, and where you shouldn't use them.
所以听完这节课后，你会得到一些使用冠词的小贴士，知道哪里需要用冠词，哪里不应该用冠词。

And also, if you're someone who's getting articles right nearly all the time, I'm quite sure that you will pick up one or two rules here that you didn't know before.
还有，如果你属于那种几乎没有用错过冠词的人，我非常肯定你在这里会学到一两条你之前不知道的规则。
So let's get started, there are eight different rules.
那么我们就开始吧，总共有八条不同的规则。
Rule No. 1: When we're talking about countries, most countries we don't use an article.
规则一：我们在讲国家时，大部分国名前不用冠词。
So here some sentences."She lives in England.They live in America."We don't use articles.
这里有一些句子。“她住在英国。他们住在美国。”我们不用冠词。
But if the country's considered to be a nation state, a collection of different states, or a collection of different countries in one bigger state, then we use articles.Here are examples.
但是如果这个国家是民族国家，是由不同的州组成的，或者是不同国家联合而成的一个大国，那我们就要用冠词。这里有一些例子。
So "the U.S.A. , the U.K. , the U.A.E." where I spend a lot of my time, and here are...also, we need to mention islands.
所以在“美利坚合众国”，“大不列颠和北爱尔兰联合王国”，以及“阿拉伯联合酋长国”前都要加上定冠词 "the"，我在阿联酋待了很长时间，我们还要提一下群岛。
When a country is a group of islands, we always use articles.
当一个国家是由一些群岛组成的时，我们通常要在国名前加上冠词。
So we would say "the Virgin Islands", and we'd say "the Philippines" as well.
所以在“维尔京群岛”和“菲律宾”前我们要加上 "the"。
It's interesting that we can say, "She lives in England" because England is one country.
有意思的是，我们用 "England" 时可以直接说“她住在英国”，因为英国是一个国家。
But when talking about the same...okay, it's not exactly the same place, the U.K. , because it's...the U.K. is more than one country.It's more than just England.
但是当我们说同样的......好吧，不完全是同一个地方，因为 "the U.K." 不止一个国家。不止是由英格兰组成的。
But sometimes people think of it as being the same place, it's not.
但是有时候人们会认为这是同一个地方，其实不是。
When we're talking about the U.K. , we need an article, but just for "England", it's okay not to use an article.
当我们说 "the U.K." 时，我们需要加上冠词，但是用 "England" 时可以不用冠词。
Let's take a look at Rule No. 2.Rule No. 2, this is a really subtle rule, here, and this one I always correct in sentences.
我们来看看第二条规则。规则二是非常隐晦的一条规则，我经常在句子里纠正这一点。
When people talk about meals -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, also brunch is a meal you might not know, it's in between breakfast and lunch, we don't use articles.
当人们谈论餐饭——早餐、午餐、晚餐，还有早午饭，你们可能不知道这个，它是介于早餐和午餐之间的一餐，谈论这些时我们不用冠词。
So here's a correct sentence."I don't eat breakfast."I'm talking in general there, "I don't eat breakfast.", that's okay to say.
这里有一个正确的句子。“我不吃早餐。”我在那里是泛指，所以直接说“我不吃早餐”是可以的。
However, if I'm being specific, "We didn't like the dinner", it's okay to use an article here, you need to.
但是，如果我是特指，比如“我们不喜欢那顿晚餐”，在这里用冠词是可以的，是需要用冠词的。
So what does the sentence actually mean?Imagine that we were out last night, and we had a meal.And now, we're talking about it.
那么这个句子真正的意思是什么呢？想象一下我们昨晚去了外面，我们吃了顿饭。现在我们在聊那顿饭。
I said, "Well, the place was nice, but I didn't like the dinner.", being specific about that experience we had.
我说：“那里地方是不错，但是我不喜欢那顿晚饭。”，我这就是在特指我们那一次的体验。
If I'm talking in general, "I don't like dinner", that would just mean all the time.
如果我是泛指，就可以说“我不喜欢晚餐”，那就是说我一直不喜欢吃晚餐。
Okay? So it's a very big difference in meaning.Now, we'll look at rule No. 3 for jobs.
知道了吗？所以这在意思上有很大的区别。现在我们来看第三条规则，这是关于职业的。
Jobs take the indefinite article.That's a grammar word, and "indefinite article" means "a".We don't use "the".
在职业前要用不定冠词。那是一个语法词，“不定冠词”就是指 "a"。我们不用 "the"。
Here's our example, "I want to be a politician."I actually really don't want to be a politician, but maybe some of you watching this do.
来看一个例句：“我想成为一名政治家。”我其实不想成为政治家，但可能你们看这个视频的人中有这么想的。
If you want to be a politician, you should really study English really hard.
如果你想成为政治家，那你应该非常用功地学英语。
It's very important.Let's have a look at the next rules.
这非常重要。我们来看接下来的规则。
No. 4, do you know this English language board game called "Scrabble"?
第四，你知道有个英语语言类桌游叫做“拼字游戏”吗？
In this board game, you get points for spelling words.
在这个桌游中，你要通过拼字获得分数。
And if you can spell a long word, that's better, usually, it depends.
而且通常如果你能拼出一个很长的单词就更好了，这要视情况而定。
But sometimes, you'll have a long word that everybody knows, but actually, you can't get any points for it in Scrabble because it's a proper noun.
但是有时候会出现一个大家都知道的长单词，但实际上这个单词在拼字游戏里给你加不了分，因为这是一个专有名词。
And that basically means a noun that takes a capital letter.
那一般就是指以大写字母开头的名词。
So it could be a word that everybody knows like "June, August, Friday" or a place name like "London".
所以那可能是大家都认识的单词，比如“六月、八月、周五”，或像“伦敦”这样的地名。
And you don't get any points for that in Scrabble.
这种词在拼字游戏里是得不到分的。
So...also, how it relates to this lesson is when we're using proper nouns, we don't use "the".
所以......这与本节课的相关之处就是我们在用专有名词时，前面不加 "the"。
We don't use the definite article, but we can use prepositions.
我们不用定冠词，但是可以用介词。
So "See you on Monday" or "He is in London."
所以可以说“周一见”，或“他在伦敦”。
It's okay with proper nouns, but not the definite article.
在专有名词前加介词是可以的，但是加定冠词就不行了。
Rule No. 5: When we're talking about languages, we don't use articles there either.
第五条规则：我们说语言时，前面也不加冠词。
So we can say, "He speaks English.", that's a perfectly good sentence.
所以我们可以说“他讲英语”，那是一个完全正确的句子。
And rule No. 6.Okay, when there's only one of something, then we use "the".
第六条规则。当某个事物只有一个时，我们要加 "the"。
So what things are there only one of something?
那么什么是只有一个的呢？
Well, if you look up in the sky, and it's night, there's only one moon.
晚上你抬头看看天空，上面只有一个月亮。
And there's only one sun in our solar system.
我们的太阳系中只有一个太阳。
So when we're using the moon and the sun, we always use "the" with it.
所以当我们用月亮和太阳时，前面总是要加上 "the"。
And maybe this one is a confusion sometimes because in your language, maybe "moon" and "sun" are names, so you think they don't use an article.
这一点有时候可能有些令人困惑，因为在你的语言中“月亮”和“太阳”或许是名字，所以你认为它们前面不用加冠词。
Well, anyway, in English, they do take an article, so it's really important that you don't forget to use "the".
不管怎样，在英语中它们前面是要加冠词的，所以你们一定不要忘记加上 "the"。
And...oh, yes, here's another one that there's only one of something in the world.The Internet, okay?There's just one Internet.
还有......哦，对，还有一个世界上仅有一个的东西。那就是因特网。只有一个因特网。
There are all these different computers and devices connected to it, but there's just one Internet.So we use "the" with "Internet".
虽然有很多不同的电脑和装置连接着它，但是因特网只有一个。所以在因特网前面要加上 "the"。
When we come back, we're just going to look at the final rules for using articles, the ones that people get wrong all the time.
回来后我们来看冠词用法的最后两条规则，这些是人们总是弄错的。
Okay, let's take a look at the last two rules for articles.No. 7 is uncountable nouns.What are uncountable nouns?
好了，我们来看一看冠词的最后两条规则。第七点是不可数名词。不可数名词是什么？
These are nouns that we don't add "s" to, and we find them most of the time when we're talking about food.
不可数名词就是在后面不能加 "s" 的名词，不可数名词多见于食物类名词中。
For example, "bread", usually we don't put a plural with "bread" or "pasta" or "rice".These kinds of things are uncountable nouns.
比如“面包”，我们一般不会给“面包”、“意面”或“米饭”加复数。这些就是不可数名词。
So usually, we're not going to use "the" with them if you're talking in general.
所以如果是泛指，我们通常不会在这些名词前加 "the"。
If you say, "I like bread", we're talking in general, just as a statement.
如果你说：“我喜欢面包”，这就是在泛指，只是一种陈述。
But if you say, "I like the bread", we're talking about something in the room with us, something we can see, something at the table with us now, some specific bread.
但是如果你说：“我喜欢那个面包”，那就是指和我们在同一个房间的东西，我们能看见的东西，现在就在我们所坐的桌子上的东西，某个特定的面包。
Rule No. 8 is very similar: abstract nouns.Again, these don't take a plural.
第八条规则和上面这个很相似，是抽象名词。还是一样，这些词没有复数形式。
What abstract nouns are is they represent concepts, not real things that we can touch in the world.They're ideas, concepts.
抽象名词表示的是概念，不是我们在这个世界上能真实触摸到的东西。它们是想法、概念。
So "information" is an abstract noun, and "freedom" is an abstract noun.
所以“信息”是个抽象名词，“自由”是个抽象名词。
And when do we use an article with these; when don't we use an article?
那么什么时候要在这些名词前用冠词，什么时候不用冠词呢？
Let's have a look."The information was helpful."
我们来看一看。“这个信息很有用。”
Here, we're being specific, I'm maybe talking about something I'm holding in my hands.
我们在这里是特指，我可能讲的是我正拿在手中的东西。
Whereas, "Freedom is worth dying for.", there is no article here because that's a general grand statement about freedom.
但是在“为自由而死是值得的”中我们没有加冠词是因为这是关于自由所做的一番宽泛的慷慨宣言。
And if we put abstract nouns at the beginning of sentences, usually we don't want an article there because we're talking in general.
而且如果我们把抽象名词放在了句首，那么我们一般是不加冠词的，因为我们是在泛指。
So there are my eight irregular rules for articles.
以上就是冠词的八条特殊规则。
If you apply these, that will help take your English to a higher level because many of these rules people miss out and not using articles where they need to be, or the other way around.
用上这些规则你的英语就会上升到更高的水平，因为这些规则中很多都会被人们遗漏掉，他们不在需要加冠词的地方加冠词，或者在不需要加冠词的地方加冠词。
So if you want to take this a little bit further, you can go to the website, and you can do the quiz on the website.
想要进一步了解这方面的内容，你可以登陆我们的网站，可以在网站上做一做小测验。
Also, if you like this video, you can subscribe, subscribe here on my EngVid channel.
还有，如果你喜欢这个视频，可以订阅，在这儿订阅我的 EngVid 频道。
And also, on my other YouTube channel where I've got more than 200 videos to help you learn English, as well.
也可以订阅我的另一个 YouTube 频道，我在那个频道上也有200多个可以帮助你学习英语的视频。
So yes, I'm finished now, and I hope you come back soon for more English with me.Bye-bye.
所以，嗯，我现在就讲完了，希望你很快回来与我学习更多英语。拜拜。