We have two kind of articles:

•Indefinite a an •Definite the

Indefinite article a/an •We use “a” with nouns starting with a “consonant” or a consonant sound •We use “an” with nouns starting with a “vowel” or a vowel sound Ex: An apple A house An opera A boy A university An honour

A / An is used:

•To refer to something for the first time Ex: 1.

“An elephant and a mouse fell in love” 2.

“I’ve finally got a good job” 3.

“Would you like a drink?”

A / An is used: •With names of jobs Ex: “She is a doctor” •With nationalities Ex: “John is an Englishman” •With names of days Ex: “I was born on a Thursday” •Meaning “one” referring one single object or person Ex:”I’d like an orange and two apples”

A / An is used: We use a hundred, a thousand, a million Note: we use “one” to add emphasis or to contrast with other numbers Ex: “we’ve got six computers, but only one printer”

THE is used: •To refer to something that has already been mentioned Ex: “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”

THE is used: •When both, the speaker and the listener know what is being talked about, even if it’s not been mentioned before Ex: “Where is

the

bathroom?” Ex: “Could you give me

the

pencils?” •Before superlatives and ordinal numbers Ex: “the last chapter” “the most beautiful” “the first page”

THE is used: •To refer to objects we regard as unique Ex: “The sun” “the moon” “the world” •With geographical areas and oceans Ex: “The Pacific ocean” “ The Sahara” “ The Caribbean”

•With decades or group of years Ex: “She grew up in the seventies” •In sentences where we define or identify a particular person or object Ex: “The man who wrote this book is famous”

Exceptions to the use of the (in-)definite article 1. Do not use

a

or

an

with uncountable nouns – We went to the library to look for information.

– Cleaning the house takes a lot of time.

– I am wearing jeans.

2. Do not add articles before abstract nouns – We cannot live without love.

– I am losing my patience.

Exceptions to the use of the (in-)definite article 3. with names of countries Ex: “Germany is a really pretty country” (Except: The United States / The UK) 4. With languages Ex: “French is spoken in Tahiti” 5. With names of meals Ex: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”

Exceptions to the use of the (in-)definite article 6. With people’s names (singular) Ex: “John is coming next Saturday” (Except: The morgans) 7. With titles Ex: “Prince Charles is Queen Elizabeth’s son” 8. With professions Ex: “Engineering is a very interesting profession”