Definite and indefinite articles

so we've covered the basic idea that divides the usage of V from a and an you know and these the definite article and a or an is the indefinite so when you're being nonspecific in language you would use the indefinite article as in may I have an orange question mark cuz it doesn't matter which Orange you're asking for you don't care it's any orange as opposed to if you wanted the orange this usage is much more specific and it seems to indicate that there is only one orange you you see the orange in particular that you want you are identifying it and you're asking for it that's what this definite usage is something that's interesting about the word the is that it can be used for both singular and plural nouns so it's most singular and plural so you could say may I have the orange you could also say may I have the oranges a and an does not really allow this it is only singular so you can't say may I have and oranges this is this is not standard what you would probably say instead was may I have some oranges so this is not standard does not work in standard American English the other thing about a or an is that it's a or and the indefinite article changes depending on the vowel sound that comes after it so changes for vowel sounds now what does that mean well it means that if you know that the word that you're going to say next like aa or or or a or e then you're going to change it to an so it's the difference between saying a box and an apple and what we don't say in standard American English is a Apple it's not as easy on the mouth frankly it takes a little bit more effort and any linguist will tell you that the way languages develop is that they were laziness so we say a box but we say an apple something something a little weird though you want to make sure that you're looking for vowel sounds not just for vowels because some some vowels for example the letter you don't always produce sounds sometimes if they're at the beginning of a word like in the word Union so if you say a union that produces a yes sound and yeah is technically a consonant sound that's not a it's not a vowel but there are certainly cases like an underwater boat where the letter U does produce you know an O or an a sound and that's a vowel so if you're going to start the word with a vowel sound what you want to do is choose an instead of a but just be careful of the letter U for example so to recap thee is the definite article you can use it for both singular and plural usage may I have the orange may I have the oranges a or an is indefinite and it's only singular so you can say may I have an orange or may I have some oranges before a vowel sound a changes to an so you say a box but an apple not a Apple you say a union but an underwater boat you can learn anything Dave it out