English Articles
Learning the English Articles displayed below is vital to the language. English articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Generally articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun. Examples are "the, a, and an".
Articles in English are easy to use than in many other languages, they are: "a (or an)" and "the", the first one is indefinite article, the second one is definite article.
Indefinite Articles:
As mentioned earlier "a (or an)" are indefinite articles, they are used when referring to something not known to the person you're talking to, or something not mentioned before in the same discussion: I have an apple and a banana. We use "an" with words starting with these vowel (a, e, i, o, u), and "a" with the rest, note that sometimes we need to use "a" even if a word start with "u", like university for example, we used "a" because it is pronounced like "youniversity", so it's as if this word starts with "y" and not "u". Also the word "honest" should go with "an" even if it starts with "h", because we pronounce it as "onest" which starts with "o". So we say: a university, and an honest man.
The indefinite article “a” and “an” can also be used with professions: he is a teacher. (his job is a teacher).
Definite Articles:
You use the definite article "the" when the thing you're talking about was already mentioned before: Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess, the prince was 22 years old, and the princess was 19. There are some other times when you use "the", but you don't have to worry about them right now.
No Article:
Sometimes you don't need to use an article at all, especially when talking about general terms: life is beautiful (it's not common to say the life is beautiful), people are generally nice. Also no article is used when talking about countries... Note that countries containing "states, kingdom, and republic" need articles:
I visited Morocco, and passed by Spain, my final destination was the United Kingdom before I came home to the United States.
English Articles
Learning the English Articles displayed below is vital to the language. English articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Generally articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun. Examples are "the, a, and an".
Articles in English are easy to use than in many other languages, they are: "a (or an)" and "the", the first one is indefinite article, the second one is definite article.
Indefinite Articles:
As mentioned earlier "a (or an)" are indefinite articles, they are used when referring to something not known to the person you're talking to, or something not mentioned before in the same discussion: I have an apple and a banana. We use "an" with words starting with these vowel (a, e, i, o, u), and "a" with the rest, note that sometimes we need to use "a" even if a word start with "u", like university for example, we used "a" because it is pronounced like "youniversity", so it's as if this word starts with "y" and not "u". Also the word "honest" should go with "an" even if it starts with "h", because we pronounce it as "onest" which starts with "o". So we say: a university, and an honest man.
The indefinite article “a” and “an” can also be used with professions: he is a teacher. (his job is a teacher).
Definite Articles:
You use the definite article "the" when the thing you're talking about was already mentioned before: Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess, the prince was 22 years old, and the princess was 19. There are some other times when you use "the", but you don't have to worry about them right now.
No Article:
Sometimes you don't need to use an article at all, especially when talking about general terms: life is beautiful (it's not common to say the life is beautiful), people are generally nice. Also no article is used when talking about countries... Note that countries containing "states, kingdom, and republic" need articles:
I visited Morocco, and passed by Spain, my final destination was the United Kingdom before I came home to the United States.
