WHAT IS AN ARTICLE?

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun.

TYPES OF ARTICLES

Articles are either definite or indefinite.

The (definite) A/an, ZERO (indefinite)

USAGE

The

1. To refer to something which has already been mentioned. An elephant and a mouse fell in love. The mouse loved the elephant's long trunk, and the elephant loved the mouse's tiny nose.

2. When both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

-Where's the bathroom? -It's on the first floor.

 3. In sentences or clauses where we define or identify a particular person or object:

The man who wrote this book is famous. -Which car did you scratch? -The red one. My house is the one with a blue door.
4. To refer to objects we regard as unique: The Sun, The Moon, The World.

5. Before superlatives and ordinal numbers: The highest building, the first page, the last chapter.

6. With adjectives, to refer to a whole group of people: The Japanese, the old.
7. With decades or groups of years: She grew up in the seventies.

We have also listed some examples in the following table. There you can see when we use the definite article and when we don't.

 A/an

A/an is only used when the head of the noun phrase is a singular count noun. It is not used with plural count (apples; snakes; knives; books) or with mass or uncountable nouns (music; butter; furniture; rice).

Examples:

Mr. Scott ordered a pizza. Oscar Wilde was a writer. William Wallace was a hero. Mrs. Robinson has an appealing personality.

Pronunciation

Although the has only one written form, both definite and indefinite articles have two commonly spoken forms, depending on the sound that follows.

Before a consonant sound: the //; a // Before a vowel sound: the //; an /n/

 ZERO

ARTICLE

If we want to refer to something general and the nouns that we are using are either plural or uncountable, we leave out articles.

USAGE

1. To talk about plural and uncountable nouns or when talking about things in general:

I'm terrified of heights. I'm really into rock music. I hate cheese.

2. Before countries, towns, streets, languages and single mountains: I'm from China. I've climbed Mount Everest. She speaks French.

3. Before some places and with some forms of transport: I live at home with my parents. I came here by car. He goes to work by bus.