What did you do last weekend?
1. Read the letter about my weekend and fill the gaps with:
Indefinite article: a/an
or
Definite article: the
or
No article/nothing: X
Write your answers (a/an/the/X) in your notebook (1-21)
3. When you have filled the gaps, look at the yellow words. What type of words are they? Can you guess their meaning from the sentence?
ANSWERS:
1. the - at the weekend (fixed expression)
2. X - we don't need an article for days of the week
e.g. On Monday, on Friday, Last Tuesday, Next Thursday, etc.
3. X - we are talking about work in general. Work is an uncountable noun.
e.g. My friend starts work at 8am every morning.
If we talk about specific work, we need 'the':
e.g. The work my friend does is difficult.
4. X - normally we don't use articles for meals
e.g. have breakfast, have lunch, have dinner.
If we talk about specific meals, then we use 'the'.
General: I have lunch at 1pm.
Specific: The lunch I ate yesterday was tasty.
5. X - pasta is an uncountable noun and we are speaking in general
6. X - we are speaking in general about a plural noun
7. the - we use 'the' with superlative adjectives
e.g. the first, the last, the biggest, the best, the worst
8. a - this is the first time we have spoken about the series, so we use 'a'
9. the - there is only one ending!
10. the - this is the second time (after 8), so now we use 'the'
Look at the example:
I went to a restaurant last night. The restaurant served Italian food.
11. the - the sun/the moon
12. the - we use 'the' for the times of day
In the morning
In the afternoon
In the evening
BUT: at night
13. X - we don't need articles for city names
14. X - no article for days of the week (like number 2)
15. a/the
We have 2 options here.
a - because it is the first time we mention the park
the - because we often say 'the park' as a fixed expression
16. the - we have mentioned the park before, so this time we definitely need 'the'
17. the - times of day (like number 12)
18. a - the first time we have talked about the cake
19. the - the second time we have talked about the cake
20. X - day of the week = no article
21. X - 'go to bed' is a fixed expression
WELL DONE! You should now feel more confident using articles. What rules did you learn? Go back and check the answers you got wrong.
You can find another activity on articles here.
Yellow words: They are all adjectives (describing words)
exhausted [ɪɡˈzɔstəd] = very tired (person)
hilarious [hɪˈlɛriːəs] = very funny (person or thing)
poignant [ˈpɔɪnjənt] = makes you sad or emotional (thing)
scrumptious [ˈskrʌmpʃəs] = very tasty/delicious (thing)
WRITING PRACTICE:
Write your own letter telling us what you did last weekend.
Be careful with choosing a/an, the, or no article!
Find more Level 1/2 activities with the purple arrow: