Article and/or 's'

This post includes grammar rules!
There's also a writing practice task.

For every noun you speak or write, you need to use grammar to communicate one of the meanings in the ‘meaning’ column in the table below.

When you’re trying to decide which article to use, and whether or not to add ‘s’, you must first of all decide:

  1. What meaning do I want to communicate?
  2. Is the noun countable or uncountable?
  3. If it’s countable is it singular or plural?

Then you can choose an article and/or add ‘s’ accordingly.

 
meaning
singular
plural
countable
all of them everywhere
 
add 's'
 
one of many1
a(n)
add 's'
 
this one exactly2
the
the + add 's'
uncountable
all of it everywhere
no article
 
 
some of much
no article3
 
 
this exactly
the
 
  1. Plural: some of many - often with a different determiner, for example several, various, certain, a number of
  2. Plural: these exactly
  3. A determiner other than an article might be appropriate, for example some.

Practice

All articles and plural 's' have been removed from the text below. Add articles and 's' into the text where you think they should appear, then click 'Compare with original!' for answers and analysis.