Penggunaan Article A, An, dan The

Dalam TOEFL, penggunaan kata sandang (article) a, an, dan the merupakan salah satu aspek yang paling sering ditanyakan. Di lain pihak, penggunaan article sering kita remehkan, walaupun harus kita akui bahwa penggunaannya sering membingungkan, khususnya dalam menentukan perlu tidaknya kita menambahkan article di depan noun.
Apakah anda ingin mengetahui sejauh mana pemahaman anda tentang penggunaan article a, an, danthe sebelum melanjutkan membaca tulisan ini? Jika ya, silakan langsung kerjakan Practice test 3. Nanti anda putuskan sendiri apakah anda perlu melanjutkan membaca tulisan ini atau tidak. Good luck!
Perbedaan penggunaan article A vs AN.
Sebagai article, ‘ a ‘ dan ‘ an ‘ artinya adalah satu. Dalam bahasa Indonesia, kedua article ini dapat diterjemahkan menjadi sebuah/seorang/seekor/sehelai dst. Hal ini tergantung dari noun yang mengikutinya. Misalnya,
• an apple = sebuah apel
• a lady = seorang wanita
• a tiger = seekor harimau
• a leaf = sehelai daun, dst.
Penggunaan A dan AN
1. a dan an hanya dapat diikuti oleh singular nouns (benda tunggal), tetapi tidak pernah secara langsung diikuti oleh uncountable nouns (benda tidak dapat dihitung). Olehnya itu, akan INCORRECT jika anda menulis,
• I need a water. (water: uncountable noun)
• I just ate a bread. (bread: uncountable noun)
• She just heard a bad news about her parents. (news: uncountable noun)
Kalimat ini akan menjadi benar jika article a dihilangkan atau jika di depan uncountable nouns (i.e. water dan bread) ditambahkan penakar (container) atau pengukur yang berfungsi untuk menyatakan berapa banyak/volume/ukuran dari uncountable nouns tersebut.
• I need water. Atau I need a glass of water.
• I just ate bread. Atau: I just ate a big slice of bread.
• She just heard bad news about her parents. Atau: She just heard a piece of bad news about her parents.

Kapan kita gunakan a dan kapan kita gunakan an dapat dibaca pada topik Noun (part 2): Countable. Selain itu, noun yang tergolong ke dalam uncountable noun juga harus diketahui, sebab article a dan an tidak digunakan jika diikuti oleh uncountable nouns.
2. a dan an digunakan untuk mengekspresikan sebuah singular noun secara umum (in general).
Contoh:
1. A football is usually made of leather. ( leather = kulit. Note: dalam konteks ini, jangan gunakan kataskin. Leather adalah animal skin yang sudah diolah).
2. An artist should keep a good relationship with fans.
3. a dan an digunakan untuk merujuk ke sebuah singular noun yang belum pernah disebutkan sebelumnya.
Contoh:
1. I met a guy last night.
2. My company just built a new skyscraper. (skyscraper = gedung pencakar langit)
Penggunaan article THE
Ada beberapa rules yang harus anda pahami dalam penggunaan article the.
1. The umumnya digunakan untuk merujuk noun yang sudah pernah disebutkan sebelumnya. Dengan adanya the, noun yang dimaksud menjadi lebih spesifik. Noun tersebut bisa countable, bisa juga uncountable noun. Jika countable noun, noun tersebut bisa singular, bisa juga plural. Dalam hal ini, thedapat berarti tersebut atau itu, atau kadang-kadang ini.
Contoh:
1. I met a guy last night. The guy asked my number and whether I would go out for a date. (number = nomor telepon, date = kencan). Dalam kalimat ini, the bisa digantikan dengan that.
2. The water in my well is contaminated. (well = sumur, contaminated = terkontaminasi). Dalam kalimat ini, the tidak pas kalau digantikan dengan that, karena “water” di kalimat ini sudah diterangkan oleh “in my well“. Coba terjemahkan, terasa janggal bukan?
3. Three students didn’t perform well in my exam. The (three) students hadn’t studied hard enough before the exam. Dalam kalimat ini, kata three adalah optional: bisa digunakan, bisa juga dihilangkan, karena maknanya sudah dipahami oleh lawan bicara atau pembaca. Di kalimat ini, thedapat digantikan dengan those/these. Jika anda masih ragu dalam penggunaan those/these, akan lebih aman jika anda gunakan the.
4. There are many persons named Agnes Monica on Facebook. You will have hard time to find theAgnes Monica who sings Matahariku.
Sebaliknya, the tidak digunakan jika kita membicarakan uncountable nouns atau plural nouns secara umum (in general).
Contoh:
1. Water needs to be conserved. (Air perlu dikonservasi/dilindungi).
2. Sugar is sweet. (Gula (rasanya) manis).
3. Durians are very smelly. (Duarian-durian sangat bau/baunya keras).
4. Lazy students hardly get good grades. (Murid-murid yang malas hampir tidak pernah mendapat nilai-nilai bagus).
2. Kata seperti breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper (= dinner), school, church, home, dan college pada umumnya tidak membutuhkan article. Tetapi, jika noun ini dirujuk, barulah article the diperlukan.
Contoh:
1. We go to school everyday. Starting next week, however, the school will be bulldozed by the government. (be bulldozed = diratakan dengan tanah dengan menggunakan bulldozer).
2. Jenny and I just finished having lunch at the cafetaria. I thanked her because she paid for thelunch.
3. I am very tired. I’d like to go home.
3. Rules yang lain dalam menentukan apakah the digunakan atau tidak, dapat dilihat pada tabel berikut. Note: the yang digunakan pada nouns di tabel berikut pada umumnya tidak berarti “tersebut”, olehnya itu, tidak dapat digantikan dengan that.
Gunakan THE untuk: Jangan gunakan THE untuk:
Nama samudra, laut, sungai, teluk, plural lakes (nama danau yang terdiri dari 2 danau atau lebih).
Contoh: the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Java Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Great Lakes, the Citarum River Nama danau
Contoh: Lake Toba, Lake Batur, Lake Erie
Nama pegunungan
Contoh: the Rocky Mountains, the Andes, the Bukit Barisan Nama gunung
Contoh: Mount Merapi, Mount Semeru, Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Everest.
Earth, moon, sun
Contoh: the earth, the moon, the sun Nama planet (selain bumi), rasi bintang
Contoh: Mars, Venus, Orion,
Nama sekolah, universitas, college jika sekolah, universitas, college ditempatkan di depan.
Contoh: the School of Cooper’s Art, the University of Gadjah Mada, the college of Arts and Sciences. Nama sekolah, universitas, college jika sekolah, universitas, college ditempatkan di belakang.
Contoh: Cooper’s Art school, Gadjah Mada University, Sante Fe Community College.
Ordinal number sebelum nouns
Contoh: the Second World War, the third chapter Cardinal number setelah nouns
Contoh: World War Two, Chapter three.
Nama perang (kecuali perang dunia)
Contoh: the Korean War, the Crimean War, the Civil War
Nama negara yang terdiri dari 2 kata atau lebih (kecuali Great Britain)
Contoh: the United States of America, the Central African Republic Nama negara jika hanya terdiri dari satu kata
Contoh: Indonesia, China, Canada, France
Nama benua
Contoh: Asia, Europe, South America.
Nama state/province
Contoh: Florida, Ohio, California, Manitoba, Jawa Timur, Sulawesi Utara.
Dokumen bersejarah
Contoh: the constitution, the Magna Carta
Nama Olahraga
Contoh: basketball, football, tennis
Noun abstract
Contoh: freedom, happiness
Bidang ilmu
Contoh: mathematics, Economics, sociology
Nama hari raya
Contoh: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Idul Fitri, Independence day
Contoh:
1. Bryan Adams was born in Canada, but he lives in Great Britain. Celine Dion is also a Canadian born singer, but she lives in the United States now.
2. The Great Lakes consist of five lakes one of which is Lake Ontario.
3. The earth travels around the sun, and so does Mars.



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Bahasa Inggris Bisnis 2 (Subject-Verb Agreement) – Tugas 3

Exercise 10: Subject-Verb Agreement
1. John, along with twenty friends, are planning a party.
2. The picture of the soldiers bring back many memories.
3. The quality of these recordings are not very good.
4. If the duties of these officers aren’t reduced, there will not be enough time to finish the project.
5. The effects of cigrette smoking have been proven to be extremely harmful.
6. The use of credit cards in place of cash have increased rapidly in recent years.
7. Advertisements on television are becoming more competitive than ever before.
8. Living expenses in this country, as well as in many others, is at an all-time high.
9. Mr. Jones, accompanied by several members of the committee, has proposed some changes of the rules.
10. The levels of intoxication vary from subject to subject.
Exercise 11: Subject-Verb Agreement
1. Neither Bill nor Mary are going to the play tonight.
2. Anything are better than going to another movie tonight.
3. Skating is becoming more popular every day.
4. A number of reporters were at the conference yesterday.
5. Everybody who has a fever must go home immediately.
6. Your glasses were on the bureau last night.
7. There were some people at the meeting last night.
8. The committee has already reached a decision.
9. A pair of jeans were in the washing mechine this morning.
10. Each student have answered the first three questions.
11. Either John or his wife makes breakfast each morning.
12. After she had perused the material, the secretary decided that every-thing were in order.
13. The crowd at the basketball game was wild with excitement.
14. A pack of wild dogs has frightened all the ducks away.
15. The jury is trying to reach a decision.
16. The army has eliminated this section of the training test.
17. The number of students who have withdrawn from class this quarter are appalling.
18. There have been too many interruptions in this class.
19. Every elementary school teacher has to take this examination.
20. Neither Jill nor her parents have seen this movie before

Bahasa Inggris Bisnis 2 (Articles) – Tugas 2

Exercise 4: Articles
1. Jason’s father bought him a bicycle that he had wanted for his birthday.
2. Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from France to United States.
3. Rita is studying English and math this semester.
4. A Judge asked the witness to tell the truth.
5. Please give me a cup of coffe with cream and sugar.
6. A Give books on the table for my history class.
7. No one in the Spanish class knew correct the answer to Mrs. Perez’s question.
8. My car is four years old and it still runs well.
9. When you go to the store, please buy a bottle of chocholate milk and a dozen oranges.
10. There are only a few seats left for tonight’s musical at the university.
11. John and Marcy went to school yesterday and then studied in the library before returning home.
12. Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes in North America.
13. On our trip to Spain, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
14. Mount Rushmore is the site of the magnificent tribute to the four great American presidents.
15. What did you eat for breakfast this morning?
16. Louie played basketball and baseball at the Boys’ Club this year.
17. Rita plays a violin and her sister plays a guitar.
18. While we were in Alaska, we saw the Eskimo village.
19. Phil can’t go to the movies tonight because he has to write an essay.
20. David attended Princenton University.
21. Harry has been admitted to the School of Medicine at midwestern university.
22. Mel’s grandmother is in hospital, so we went to visit her last night.
23. The Political science class is taking trip to Soviet Union in the spring.
24. Queen Elizabeth II is a monarch of the Great Britain.
25. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up in 1776.
26. Scientists hope to send an expendition to Mars during 1980s.
27. Last night there was bird singing outside my house.
28. The chair that you are sitting in is broken.
29. The Civil War was fought in United States between 1861 and 1865.
30. Florida State University is smaller than University of Florida.