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Definite 'The'.: A and An Are Used Before Nouns That Introduce Something or

There are three articles in English: a, an, and the. A and an are indefinite articles used before nouns that have not been mentioned before. You use "a" before nouns starting with consonants and "an" before nouns starting with vowels. The definite article "the" is used when the listener knows or can identify the specific person or thing being referred to. It is also used with geographical locations, bodies of water, singular nouns like the sun or wind, and to indicate something is the best of its kind.

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55 views4 pages

Definite 'The'.: A and An Are Used Before Nouns That Introduce Something or

There are three articles in English: a, an, and the. A and an are indefinite articles used before nouns that have not been mentioned before. You use "a" before nouns starting with consonants and "an" before nouns starting with vowels. The definite article "the" is used when the listener knows or can identify the specific person or thing being referred to. It is also used with geographical locations, bodies of water, singular nouns like the sun or wind, and to indicate something is the best of its kind.

Uploaded by

asmawi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Articles

There are only three articles in English: a, an and the.


There are two types of articles indefinite 'a' and 'an' or
definite 'the'.
Indefinite articles - a and an
A and an are used before nouns that introduce something or
someone you have not mentioned before:-

For
example:

"I saw an elephant this morning."


"I ate a banana for lunch."

A and an are also used when talking about your profession:For


example:

"I am an English teacher."


"I am a builder."

You use a when the noun you are referring to begins with a
consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y
or z),
Note!

for example, "a city", "a factory", and "a hotel".


You use an when the noun you are referring to begins with
a vowel (a, e, i, o, u)

Definite Article the


You use the when you know that the listener knows or can work
out what particular person/thing you are talking about.
For
example:

"The apple you ate was rotten."


"Did you lock the car?"

You should also use the when you have already mentioned the
thing you are talking about.
For
"She's got two children; a girl and a boy. The girl's eight
example:
and the boy's fourteen."

We use the to talk about geographical points on the globe.


For
example:

the North Pole, the equator

We use the to talk about rivers, oceans and seas


For
example:

the Nile, the Pacific, the English channel

We also use the before certain nouns when we know there is only
one of a particular thing.
For
example:

the rain, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth, the
White House etc..

However if you want to describe a particular instance of these you


should use a/an.
For
example:

"I could hear the wind." / "There's a cold wind blowing."


"What are your plans for the future?" / "She has a
promising future ahead of her."

The is also used to say that a particular person or thing being


mentioned is the best, most famous, etc. In this use, 'the' is
usually given strong pronunciation:
For
example:

"Harry's Bar is the place to go."


"You don't mean you met the Tony Blair, do you?"

Note !!!!!!
For

- The doesn't mean all:"The books are expensive." = (Not all books are

example:

expensive, just the ones I'm talking about.)


"Books are expensive." = (All books are expensive.)

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