Articles with Nouns of Materials

The majority of concrete uncountable nouns are nouns of material. A small number of nouns like furniture, baggage equipment, machinery, etc. are included in this group of rules.

The Zero Article

Concrete uncountable nouns take the zero article when used to nominate the substance or in a general sense, even if there is a descriptive attribute.

e.g. These pills should be dissolved in water. She ticked off the names written in violet ink. The present was wrapped in colorful paper. The ground was covered with snow. He hoped he would save enough money to buy new furniture.

The Definite Article

We use the definite article when the substance nominated by the noun is understood as a particular restricted quantity or location. The definite article has a limiting meaning here.

E.g. Together they walked through the slush and mud. The furniture they had was enough for a much bigger house.

The Indefinite Article

In some secondary meanings nouns of materials can become countable. It means that we may use the indefinite article when we mean:

1) A portion of food or drink. e.g. We will make a stop to have a coffee and use the restroom. BUT: He went back to his room in the hotel and ordered coffee.

She chose a soup and a salad. BUT:  This diner sells cheap chicken soup and great vegetarian wraps.

2) A sort of food. e.g. Age doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese. BUT: Bacteria are necessary to make cheese.

A fine wine has a complex taste. BUT: According to the legend, Jesus turned water into wine.

Note 1:

If the speaker nominates a small amount of a substance but it is not specified by a limiting attribute we may use the pronoun “some” instead of the zero article. 

e.g. I’m so thirsty, I need some water.  Shall I open the window? We really need some fresh air in the room.  

Note 2:

A lot of concrete uncountable nouns may have a secondary concrete meaning where they are class nouns:

e.g. The detective bough a paper from the news stand and looked at the front page.

The child was presented a giant box of chocolates for her birthday.

Nobody had any time to cook, so we opened a tin of sardines instead.

The medical attendant set a glass of water on the bedside table.

The rescue workers built a fire to keep the refugees warm.

An atom is smaller than a grain of sand.

Exercise 1. Explain the articles in the following sentences:

1. Prejudice is sinful. Blood flows red no matter who bleeds (Jewell Parker Rhodes).
2. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat (Winston Churchill).
3. The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul. (Emma Goldman).
4. You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water (Rabindranath Tagore).
5. The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water (Sigmund Freud).
6. A collection comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like (Karl Lagerfeld).
7. Everything has its limit – iron ore cannot be educated into gold (Mark Twain).
8. Love is friendship that has caught fire (Ann Landers).
9. The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet (Aristotle).
10. Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand (Mother Teresa).
11. There is only one cure for gray hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine (P. G. Wodehouse).
12. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured (Mark Twain).

 

Exercise 2. Fill in the gaps and explain the use of articles in the following sentences:

1. __ porridge is burnt again! __ cheese smells rotten, __ butter is rancid. What a disaster.
2. __perfume smells like a Christmas tree.
3. Plants have long been used for making __perfume.
4. They went to the market to buy __fresh fruit.
5. The volcano buried the town in __ash and __lava. Centuries later archeologists excavated it from __ ash.
6. Isolating children from the real world is like building a fence with __barbed wire around a school.
7. The radio doesn’t work; it is not even attached to __ wire.
8. The UN Peace Program provides __food, __fuel, __shelter and __clean water for families in areas of conflict.
9. __ new fuel for commercial aircrafts would be very useful if it produced less waste and pollution.
10. Owning Picasso's brushes and __ paint does not make you an artist.
11. The fever should go down quickly after you take __ medicine.
12. If the total weight of __passenger baggage, including __hand luggage, does not exceed 10 kg, the number of checked pieces of __free baggage is not limited.
13. The queen always carried a vial of __poison with her. It was a drug in small doses, but __ deadly poison if anyone drank the whole vial.
14. __ iron is broken; it doesn't release__ steam when I press the button.
15. Does the building have an elevator large enough for __ furniture?

 

Exercise 3. Choose five of the following nouns and make three examples with each noun using the zero, the definite and the indefinite (if possible) articles.

Food	Liquids	Natural substances	Man-made substances	Other
Fruit Bread Flour Dough Batter Porridge Cereal Meat Broth Poultry Beef Lamb Mutton Chicken Fish Flesh Honey Butter Sugar Salt Pepper Mustard Cheese Wheat Corn Rice Baking soda	Water Oil Milk Tea Coffee Lemonade Juice Sap Syrup Sauce Liquor  Wine Beer Mercury Bleach Tar Blood Saliva Sweat Vinegar Alcohol Fuel Petrol Gasoline Acid Poison Polish	Silver Gold Iron Ore Copper Lead Tin Aluminum Sand Coal Marble Wood Timber Grass Hay Straw Rock Fur Skin Muscle Tissue Rubber Chalk Vapour Steam Oxygen Carbon dioxide	Plastic Glass Wool Cotton Brick Steel Brass Wire Aluminum foil Concrete Cardboard Lumber Fiber Nylon Paper Fabric Linen Wool Silk Leather Velvet Suede Ceramic Clay China Ivory Soap	Food Grain Ash Air Fire Hair Sunlight Rain Ice Mud Dirt Snow Slush Sleet Medicine Perfume Paint Makeup Ink Glue Baggage Furniture Equipment Machinery Rubbish Litter Waste