Use of “It”

In the section on pronouns, we saw that the word it is a third person singular pronoun. However, this word also has other roles which are not related to its pronominal use. We look at some of these other uses here. 

We use “it” when we talk about time or the weather,day,distance:

What time is it?  
It is four o’clock  
It is snowing  
It‘s going to rain

It is sometimes used to “anticipate” something which appears later in the same sentence: 

 It‘s great to see you  
It‘s a pity you can’t come to my party

We use “it” for:

It’s:easy/difficult/impossible/dangerous/safe/expensive/interesting/nice/wonderful/terrible.

Uses of “A” and “An”

English has two articles: the and a/an.A/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns.

The article “an” is used before words that begin with vowels–a, e, i, o, u. Words that begin with vowels are apple, elephant, igloo, orange, and umbrella.

“A” and “an” signal that the noun modified is indefinite, referring to any member of a group. For example:

• “My daughter really wants a dog for Christmas.” This refers to any dog. We don’t know which dog because we haven’t found the dog yet.
• “Somebody call a policeman!” This refers to any policeman. We don’t need a specific policeman; we need any policeman who is available.
• “When I was at the zoo, I saw an elephant!” Here, we’re talking about a single, non-specific thing, in this case an elephant. There are probably several elephants at the zoo, but there’s only one we’re talking about here.
• “A” + singular noun beginning with a consonant: a boy; a car; a bike; a zoo; a dog
• “An” + singular noun beginning with a vowel: an elephant; an egg; an apple; an idiot; an orphan
• a broken egg
• an unusual problem
• a European country                                                                  The letter a should be used before all words beginning with a consonant sound except silent h (an honor) and before words beginning with vowels that represent combined consonant and vowel sounds (university, unit).

  Examples: a boy, a European,  a picture, a store, a table, a bottle, a window, a phone, a hyphen, and a one-horse town.

• Excersis

1) Lucy has a dog.

2) Let’s sing a song.

3) Emily needs a new desk in her room.

4) I need a blue pen.

5) Ben has an old bike.

6) Peter has an aunt in Berlin.

7) We listen to an English CD.

She has an exercise book in her school bag.

9) The speed of this car was 160 miles an hour.

10) They finished a unit.