10 / PART ONE: THE BASICS There are three articles . They are usually placed before nouns and they are : the, a, an. ‘The’ is the definite article . This is placed before a specific thing: The team cheered its opponents. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are indefinite articles and are used more gener- ally. ‘An’ is always used before a vowel: He brought a computer. There was an epidemic of smallpox in the eighteenth century. A verb is a ‘doing’ or ‘being’ word. The ‘doing’ verbs are easy to identify: to write, to play, to dance, to work, etc. There is one ‘being’ verb. The present and past tenses of the verb ‘to be’ are shown below. present past 1st person I am I was we are we were 2nd person you are you were 3rd person he, she, it is he, she, it was they are they were Looking at the verb ‘to be’ UNDERSTANDING VERBS KNOWING THE ARTICLES