Determiners ('a' or 'an'): money spider
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three sentences opposite. You’ll notice that the words ‘a’ and ‘an’ are highlighted in bold. They belong to a family of words called determiners.
The general rule is that ‘an’ is used before a word that starts with a vowel sound. If the word does not start with a vowel sound, the word ‘a’ should go before it.
You’ll remember from previous years that the 5 vowels are a, e, i, o and u. Use this opportunity to quickly rehearse with your talk partner both the short and long vowel sounds that these letters make.
Take extra care with words that have silent letters e.g. an honest person. Remember – it is the starting sound of the word (whether this is a noun, adjective or adverb) that you need to think about and NOT its spelling!
Scintillating Sentences
1) Some Romans carried a coin with the picture of a money spider on it as they believed that it would bring them good luck and wealth.
2) In the film clip, a scientist uses a paintbrush to remove an arachnid out of a small jar and place it on the water’s surface.
3) I stared for at least an hour at the money spider, as it glided across the water with its front legs in the air, because it was such an amazing sight.
Did you know?
Ballooning (or kiting) is a behaviour performed by money spiders. It involves climbing to a high spot and spinning a short length of silk. The wind catches the silk and the spider is transported to a new area.