Articles

Read the paragraph below then underline the articles.

Charlotte Quentin is a marketing consultant. She works in an office in the center

of Pittsburg, an industrial town in the north of the USA. She always goes to work by
bus in the morning because there is a lot of traffic in the city. Her company has a
second office in Toronto and she travels to Canada several times a month.

Have you underlined all the articles? Now, try to find out the difference
between “a”, “an” and “the”.

I/ The indefinite articles “a” and “an”.

The article “a” is used before consonants while “an” is used before vowels ( a, e, i, o )
and before words beginning with “h” when this letter is not pronounced: an orange /
an infant / an elegant man / an apparatus / an honest person.

1/ The indefinite articles “a” or “an” are used :

a/ before singular countable nouns when mentioned for the first time .
e.g.: I saw a boy running along the street .

b/ before names of professions .

e.g. : He is a doctor .

c/ before certain expressions like “a lot of” / “a great deal of” / “ a few” / “a little” / “ a
pair” / “a dozen” / “a score” / “ a hundred” etc…
e.g. : A score of people died in the accident .

d/ in exclamations with “ what” or “ such” before singular countable nouns .

e.g. : ● What a rude man he is !
● He is such a rude man !

2/ The indefinite articles are not used :

a/ before plural nouns
e.g.: I saw boys running along the street .

b/ before uncountable nouns ( milk, sugar, advice, furniture , information, news …)

e.g. : I have good news for you .

c/ before abstract nouns ( love, happiness, life, courage, fear ….) when they are not
used in a particular sense .
e.g. : ● You lack courage .
● She is pale with fear. (general , so “ fear” is an uncountable noun), but we
say :
 ● She suffers from a fear of the dark . ( specific, so “ fear” is countable )

II / The definite article “the”.

1/ “The” is used :
a/ before nouns of which there is only one ( the moon – the sun- the president …)
e.g.: The prime minister will pay a visit to France .

b/ before a noun which has become definite as a result of being mentioned for the
second time .
e.g.: Last night, a car smashed into a wall . The car was badly damaged but the wall
didn’t collapse.

c/ before a noun made definite by the addition of a phrase or a clause .

e.g.: The book which I’ m reading is interesting .

d/ before superlatives .
e.g. : He is the most unscrupulous man I have ever seen .

e/ before ordinal numbers ( the first – the second ……)

e.g. : The fourth of January is my birthday .

f / before some adjectives that refer to a group of people ( the old, the young, the
blind ..)
e.g. : The handicapped must be helped by the government .

g/ before the names of seas, rivers and mountains ( the Nile , the Thames, the Alps
…)
e.g. : The Mediterranean sea in becoming more and more polluted .

h/ before the names of musical instruments ( the guitar, the violin, the flute…)
eg : I’m fond of playing the piano .

2/ The definite article “the” is not used:

a/ before the names of villages, towns and countries ( exceptions : the U.S.A, the
U.A.E, the Congo, the U.K., the Philippines, the Netherlands)
e.g. : He’s been in Britain for 10 years now .

b/ before abstract nouns except when they are used in a particular sense .
e.g. : Man fears death .
But we say : he had a nervous breakdown when he received news about the death of
his father .