The indefinite article: 'a' and 'an

• We use the indefinite article, a/an, with singular nouns when the listener/reader does not know exactly which one we are referring to:Police are searching for a 14-year-old girl.

• We also use it to show that the person or thing is She is a pupil at London Road School.

• We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns or uncount nouns:

The definite article: 'the'

• We use the definite article in front of a noun when we believe the listener/reader knows exactly what we are referring to:

  because there is only one: The Pope is visiting Russia.

  The moon is very bright tonight.

• This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective:He is the tallest boy in the class.

  It is the oldest building in the town.

• because there is only one in that context: We live in a small house next to the church. (= the church in our village)

  Dad, can I borrow the car? (= the car that belongs to our family)

The definite article: 'the'

• because we have already mentioned it: A young man got a nasty shock when he tried to rob a jewellery shop in Richmond. The man used a heavy hammer to smash the windows in the shop.

• to say something about all the things referred to by a noun: The wolf is not really a dangerous animal. (= Wolves are not really dangerous animals.)

• We use the definite article in this way to talk about musical instruments: to refer to a system or service:

• We can also use the definite article with adjectives like rich, poor, elderly and unemployed to talk about groups of people: 

More uses of English articles

• Rivers, mountain ranges, seas, oceans and geographic areas all use ‘the‘.

  For example, “The Thames”, “The Alps”, “The Atlantic Ocean”, “The Middle East”.

• Unique things have ‘the’.

  For example, “the sun”, “the moon”.

  
  

More uses of English articles

• Musical instruments use ‘the‘.

  “She plays the piano.”

• Sports don’t have an article.

  “He plays football.”

• Illnesses don’t have an article.

  “He’s got appendicitis.”

  But we say “a cold” and “a headache”.

• Jobs use ‘a’.

  “I’m a teacher.”

More uses of English articles

• Countries

  We don’t use ‘a’ if the country is singular. “He lives in England.” But if the country’s name has a “plural” meaning, we use ‘the’. “The People’s Republic of China”, “The United States of America”.

• Continents, towns and streets don’t have an article.“Africa”, “New York”, “Church Street”.

• Theatres, cinemas and hotels have ‘the’.

  “The Odeon”, “The Almeira”, “The Hilton”.

• Abbreviations use ‘the’.

  “the UN”, “the USA”, “the IMF”.

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