Articles - a, an, the, and the zero article

Articles are perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of English grammar to get a real hold of. No matter what your first language is, students always face one of many problems when trying to use them.

There are perhaps over 50 rules about when and when not to use articles in English. That is way too many to learn and remember. With the following list (and I apologise because it is also not that short), I hope to present to you the most common usages of articles in English. Hopefully, with these, they will cover 95% of the way they are used. To begin with, there are 4 articles in English:

A / AN / THE / Zero Article (or no article)

The following rules tell us when to use an article:

1. Use A when we mention something for the first time (and/or to mean one, not two or 5 or 100)

Hey, guess what? I bought a new car yesterday!

Did you know that there's a new ice-cream shop down the road?

2. Use THE when we mention something a second time and so on.

Tell me about the car. How fast does it go? (continuing the conversation from Rule #1)

Yeah. I heard that the shop is a franchise of a popular Italian chain. (continuing from Rule #1)

3. Use THE when we talk about something that both the speaker and listener know about.

Tell the neighbour to turn his music down. It's too loud. (We assume there is only one neighbour)

Hey, look at the girl wearing the pink polka-dot dress. (We assume there are several girls, but only one in a pink polka-dot dress)

This rule probably accounts for the majority of the uses. This application of the is typically followed by a defining relative clause (check out the Relative Clause lesson) which helps identify who or what the speaker is referring to.

Tell the neighbour who lives upstairs to turn his music down. (The underlined phrase is a relative clause which helps tell the listener which of the many neighbours is causing the music. Because of this, the neighbour is clearly known to both the speaker and listener)

Hey look at the girl who is wearing the pink polka-dot dress. (This is the same sentence as above, but with the defining relative clause in its full form. Again, this underlined section helps identify which girl to look at because there are many)

There are some common expressions that fit into this category that include: the sky, the front/back/side (of something), the ground, the ocean, the roof, the ceiling.

4. Use THE with superlative adjectives

David is the best student in the class. This wine is one of the finest in the world.

5. Use THE with unique things or objects

Why don't you look it up on the Internet? (There is only one internet in the world that we all connect to)

During a solar eclipse, do not look directly at the Sun. (While there are many suns, or stars technically, in the universe, when we talk about the Sun, we 99% of the time refer to the one the Earth circles around)

Other things that fall into this category include: The Mona Lisa, The Sydney Opera House, The Great Pyramid at Giza, The CIA.

6. Use THE with certain adjectives that refer to a group of people

Governments are often responsible for looking after the elderly. (the elderly = old people)

Don't give it to me, give it to the poor. (the poor = poor people)

The bold and the beautiful. (The name of an American soap opera. Literally, it refers to brave people and beautiful people)

This is a particularly useful rule that can help you to produce better language. For example, instead of having to repeat the word 'people' several times, you could say initially 'poor people', and then 'the homeless', 'the poor' 'those in need'.

Cambridge Exam Tip!

Avoiding repetition is an important factor to consider when speaking or writing in the Cambridge exams.

7. Use THE with technology to refer to it generally, or as the invention itself.

I don't think I could live without the microwave. (we aren't referring specifically to your microwave, but to microwaves in general)

Perhaps one of the greatest inventions of all time is the television.

The radio was invented by Marconi, or was it Tesla.

8. Use THE with dates, decades, centuries etc.

I was born on the 5th of March. (but, I was born on March 5th)

The Beatles were popular in the 60s.

Most people don't realise we are in the 3rd millennia.

9. Use THE with seas, oceans, rivers, canals, deserts, forests, groups of mountains (not single ones), groups of islands (not single ones)

The Mediterranean Sea, The Pacific Ocean, The Amazon River, The Panama Canal, The Sahara Desert, The Daintree Rainforest, The Himalayas, The Aleutian Islands.

Often, the word sea or ocean or river can be omitted. But you cannot omit the article.

I'm going on a cruise around The Mediterranean.

The Atacama (desert) is the highest desert in the world.

With groups of mountains and groups of islands, remember that it refers to the group and never just a single mountain or island.

The tallest mountain in the world, Mt Everest, is located in The Himalayas. (Mt Everest is a single mountain, it does not have an article)

I'd love to go to The Maldives, but I hear Australia is a nice place too. (Australia is an island, it does not have an article)

10. This one is not really a rule but more of a generalisation. There may be exceptions. We often use THE in this structure: The Something of Something.

The University of Sydney. The President of the United States. The Museum of Modern Art. The Republic of France.

This generalisation is a mix of many other rules including: Rule #5 Unique Things, and the old-fashioned rule of 'Use THE with Art Galleries, Museums, Theatres and Cinemas'. The problem with the latter rule is that the names of these places are evolving so much these days so that the article rule now has too many exceptions.

The Orpheum. (a very old theatre/cinema, when the rule was prevalent).

Event Cinemas. Hoyts. Greater Union. (A very popular cinema franchise in Australia. These do not use an article)

The following rules tell us when NOT to use an article:

1. Do NOT use A or AN with uncountable or abstract nouns.

We have to buy more furniture, and maybe some equipment for the garage. (These are uncountable nouns. A/an often implies the number one, so as a rule, we don't put numbers in front of uncountable nouns.)

Bravery and courage are important attributes, but sometimes all you need is love. (These are abstract nouns. They tend to refer to non-physical things like ideas and concepts. Abstract nouns are uncountable.)

Some very common examples of uncountable nouns include: information, advice, equipment, research, luck, weather, travel, luggage, baggage, furniture, clothes, fun, money.

You may use THE with uncountable and abstract nouns. This typically occurs with Rule #3 above, where both the speaker and listener know which thing is being talked about.

The confidence and power that a good leader can inspire is an important attribute to have. (Confidence and power are both abstract nouns. Here they refer to the attributes belonging to a good leader.)

However, there is an exception to this rule. It is possible to A or AN with certain abstract nouns that refer to mental processes or states. They typically follow this structure: a/an + adjective + abstract noun + of + something.

She has a morbid fear of snakes and spiders.

A strong understanding of the theoretical principles is required.

2. Do NOT use articles with names of streets and roads (and other similar objects).

There is a large shopping centre on George St, but the nearest post office is on Darling St.

A road trip along Route 66 could be quite interesting.

There may be exceptions however, depending on which country you live in. For example, in Australia, large highways or freeways are given names like M1 or M7. In Scotland, there is a large road called the A91. We typically use THE when referring to these types of roads.

You'll need to take the M1 and head north for 2 hours before you reach the national park.

The only exception to this rule would be when applying Rule #3 above to help identify which street you are referring to. In the following example, we can assume that there is more than one George St in this city, and we need to be clear which one we are referring to.

A: I live on George St. B: Really? That must be really noisy. A: Oh, sorry. I meant the George St by the beach. It's really quiet.

3. Do NOT use articles with villages, towns and cities (and other similar places).

I was born in Sydney, but I grew up in Los Angeles.

4. Do NOT use articles with countries and continents.

France and Germany can be found in Europe.

There is much debate as to whether Australia is a country and a continent, or just a country like New Zealand.

For all continents and the overwhelming majority of countries, we do NOT use articles. There are exceptions with certain countries, but once you recognise the pattern, it's very easy.

The United States of America. The United Kingdom. The Netherlands. The Maldives. The Czech Republic.

The People's Republic of China. The Commonwealth of Australia.

We can look at this pattern grammatically. We tend to use THE with groups of objects (e.g. mountain ranges and island groups). We can extend this rule to land. With The USA, it is a group or collection of states. With The UK, it is a collection of 4 countries (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales). The Netherlands, while only one country, is a plural word so we can assume grammatically, it is a group of lands from the nether region. While it may be realistically untrue, articles belongs to grammar, and the words are subjected to grammar rules. In the case of The Czech Republic, we can treat the word Czech as an adjective and the article belongs to the noun republic. We use THE in this case to specify which republic in the world we are referring to.

That is more or less all the rules you need to regarding article usage. As I said before, these make up about 95% of all the articles in English. There are of course other uses, but it would be difficult to classify them under a rule because exceptions are very common when it comes to English grammar.

I want to finish this lesson with a few other tips regarding articles. Firstly, consider the following two sentences:

I'm going to school now.

I'm going to the school now.

With certain locations (like; school, university, church, prison/jail and hospital) there is a difference between using no article and THE. We do NOT use THE when you talk about one of these places and the person involved is an active participant or user of that place. For example, with school, an active participant or user would refer to a student. In the case of a hospital, the active participant or user would refer to a patient. When we use THE however, we are talking about a visitor to the place, or a person who does not typically engage in the core activity conducted in that place. For example, with school, the person could be a prospective student visiting the school or possibly a parent going to pick up their child. In the case of the hospital, the person would be a visitor visiting a patient in the hospital.

Furthermore, let's say you are referring to a person that works at one of those places mentioned above. For example, a teacher for a school, a doctor for a hospital, a prison guard for a prison etc. What would you say if you were going there?

I'm going to work.

The last thing I want you to think about is this. Have a look at the following six sentences. What comes to mind when you read them? Are they the same or different? Are they correct or incorrect?

#1 I love a dog.

#2 I love a dogs.

#3 I love the dog.

#4 I love the dogs.

#5 I love dog.

#6 I love dogs.

Answers:

It's a weird sentence, but it is grammatically correct. A here means one. It might make more sense when you say it like this: ''There is a dog that I really love".
This is 100% incorrect and is impossible to produce. A and a plural noun and can never go together.
This is ok and needs more qualifying. I love the dog that lives next door. This falls under Rule #3 above.
This is ok for the same reason in #3, except in this case there is more than one dog.
Believe it or not, this is also ok. When we have no article and a singular noun, we assume the noun is uncountable (if it's possible for the noun to have both a countable and an uncountable meaning). In the case of dog, what would the uncountable meaning be? Surprisingly, or shockingly in some cases, it refers to the meat of that animal. Meat in general is uncountable.
This sentence is likely to be the sentence most people want to produce. When we talk about something in general, we do not use an article and we use a plural countable noun (or a singular uncountable noun as in #5). You'd hate to mix up #5 and #6 on a first date at a restaurant.

Before we finish this lesson. Use the exercise below to practice the article rules we have learned today.

Read the following text and in each gap, add a / an / the / nothing.

Chapter 1: Introduction

(1)_____ Guinea Pig or Cavy belongs to (2)_____ rabbit family and is (3)_____ native of South America. Why they are called Guinea Pigs, no one seems to know, unless their shape suggests (4)_____ small pig and (5)_____ name Guinea is (6)_____ corruption of Guiana, (7)_____ country in (8)_____ South America. In size, shape and texture of fur they resemble (9)_____ squirrel or rabbit. They have large bodies, short legs, small feet, no tails and a wide range of colors. A full grown Cavy weighs between two and three pounds, which weight it attains at about 18 months of age. The males are usually larger than the females.

When white people first visited (10)_____ Andean region of (11)_____ South America they found the Cavy domesticated and living in (12)_____ houses of the Indians, by whom they were used for food. They were introduced into (13)_____ Europe in (14)_____ 16th Century and since that time have spread all over (15)_____ world. In (16)_____ South America there are still several species of wild Cavies. These are hunted as game and are considered (17)_____ great delicacy.

Cavies are wholly vegetarian in diet, eating about (18)_____ same things as a rabbit. They are very easily tamed, are very healthy and hardy, are not noisy, are clean in their habits, and have no offensive odor. There is probably no animal in (19)_____ world that is easier to handle. They easily adapt themselves to conditions and seem to do equally as well in city or country, in large or small quarters and (20)_____ few of them together do as well as (21)_____ large number of them.

They are practically free from (22)_____ diseases and epidemics that make (23)_____ raising of poultry and rabbits so uncertain. Some of them get sick and die, of course, but it is usually due to some local cause or to the fact that they have been neglected or improperly fed or housed, but (24)_____ contagious diseases such as will often wipe out whole flocks of poultry or a pen of rabbits are unknown among Cavies.

All of these things make (25)_____ raising of Guinea Pigs (26)_____ very pleasant as well as (26)_____ very profitable occupation.

An excerpt from The Raising and Care of Guinea Pigs: A Complete Guide to the Breeding, Feeding, Housing, Exhibiting and Marketing of Cavies by A.C. Smith.