What are articles?
When it comes to using articles, it can be very confusing to most English language learners since there are many uses of articles in English. Let's start off with answering these questions. What are articles and what are their uses? Basically, an article is used to identify a noun as being specific or unspecific. For example, there is a place that is full of thick green vegetation. Article a in this example tells us that the place is not specific it is not known to the listeners. Now let's have a look at another example, Could you please open the windows? Article the used in this example tells us specifically what windows. The speaker and the listener know exactly which windows they are talking about. Article consists of a, an and the. Article a and an are called unspecific or indefinite article and article the is called definite article.
Indefinite article ( a , an)
An indefinite article is used when a speaker mentions something that is not specific. Indefinite article consists of a and an. Article a is used before a singular noun which begins with a consonant while article an is used with a singular noun that begins with a consonant. For example, please bring with you an umbrella because the weather here is unpredictable. We can easily understand that the speaker didn't mention specifically what type of umbrella we should bring with. so we can bring any type of umbrella.
Article " a" + singular noun which begins with a consonant
- a book : I have a book in my bag.
- a cat : She has a cute cat at her home.
- a university : He is studying at a big university in the US.
- a computer : Theary has a computer.
- a car : He has a car.
Article " an" + singular noun which begins with a vowel.
- an apple : Eat an apple every morning makes you healthy.
- an orange : Pass me an orange please.
- an umbrella : Do you have an umbrella?
- an egg: Crack an egg into a bowl.
Article + adjective + noun
When a noun has an adjective preceding it, using article a or an depends on the first letter of the adjective.
- a beautiful umbrella
- an important meeting
- a good teacher
- an impressive presentation
- a spectacular place
Definite article (the)
The is called a definite article since it literally tells us which thing a speaker is referring to. The listeners know exactly what the speaker is talking about. Article "the" can be used with a singular noun, a plural noun and an uncountable noun. See the following examples.
- The moon is so bright tonight. ( There is only one moon and everyone knows it.)
- Pass me the knife. (The speaker points to a specific knife.)
- The teacher in our class is so strict. ( All the students know which teacher.)
- Please close the door. (There is only one door so it is very specific.)
- Open the windows please. (The speaker points to the windows he wants to have them closed.)
- The water you are drinking is not clean. (The speaker is talking about the water that listener is drinking.)
- the Bahamas, the Gambia
- the United Arab Emirates
- the United Kingdom
- the United States of America
Article "the" is used with some seas and oceans, mountain ranges and rivers
- the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean
- the Andes, the Himalayas, the Alps
- the Nile, the Amazon, the Yangtze
Some universities have " the"
- the University of Cape Town
- the University of Delhi,
- the University of Tokyo
