ARTICLES (A, An & The)

- The words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ are called Articles.

- ‘A’ is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound or a vowel with a
consonant sound.
A word with a consonant sound A vowel with a consonant sound
a badge a uniform
a country a university
a hotel a European man
NOTE: The Eu and u in some words like ‘European’, ‘uniform’, and ‘university’ sound like the
consonant yu.
- ‘An’ is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound or words beginning with a
silent ‘h’.
A word with a vowel sound Words beginning with a silent ‘h’
an apple an heir
an egg an hour
an iron an honest boy
- Basically we use ‘a’ or ‘an’:
1. to introduce a noun for the first time
 He has a parrot.
 I saw an eagle flying yesterday.

2. to indicate or show weight, number or time

 a day
 a litre of juice
 a hundred days

3. to describe occupation, religion or nationality

 Mary’s son is a lawyer.
 Jacob is a Christian.
 Jan is an Australian.

We use ‘the’:

1. to refer to a particular thing or person, or one already referred to.

 There is a boy knocking on the door. The boy says that he must see you now.
 The girl cried when you teased her yesterday.

2. to refer to unique things

 the West
 the sun

3. with the superlative form of adjectives

 the longest line
 the biggest car

4. to use before musical instruments (in general sense)

 I play the violin.
 Can you play the guitar?

5. to use a singular noun to represent a whole class

 The coconut tree is a useful tree.
 The horse is a noble animal and 2002 is the Year of Horse according to the
Chinese lunar calendar.
 6. to use before some proper names
 Ocean and seas – the Atlantic and the Black Sea
 Rivers – the Amazon and the Nile
 Deserts – the Sahara
 Countries – include words like Republic and Kingdom) – the United Kingdom, the
Republic of China

7. to use before the names of certain books

 the Sutra
 the Quran

8. to use before an adjective when the noun is understood

 The poor are always being neglected.
 The rich become richer.

9. to use with ordinals

 The eighth chapter of this book is very interesting.
 He was the first in class for the 100m event.

10. to use before the names of the communities and nations

 The Muslims
 The Hindus
 The Chinese
 The Malays

No Articles or Zero Articles

No article is used in certain cases. The following table shows instances when no article is used
and when is should be used.
No Article Definite Article
(a) Meals Lunch is served at noon. The lunch we had yesterday was
tasty.
(b) Times of day I study at night. We have supper in the evening.
(c) Mountains Mount Fuji The Himalayas
(d) Roads, streets High Street The main road
(e) Countries Sweden, France The Philippines*
(f) Languages Malay, English The Malay language
(g)Places Myra is going to court. They gathered outside the court.
Mother went to market. The market was crowded.
(h) Methods of travel I will go to Penang by train. I will take the early train
tomorrow.
(i) Abstract Noun beauty, honest, ugliness
(j) Proper Noun Muhammad, Shakespeare NOTES:
(k) Before a noun used in Man is mortal. *the is used before names of seas, rivers,
a wider sense Woman is tender-hearted. groups of islands or mountains,
(l) Before nouns in certain at dawn kingdoms, republics, deserts, plural
idiomatic phrases catch fire names of countries: the Atlantic Ocean,
the River Thames, the Netherlands, the
(m) Before the name of AIDS, cholera, football, cricket,
Arctic (land and sea), the Antarctic
diseases, sports and Chemistry, Biology
(land and sea), the Alps, the United
sciences States of America, the United Arab
(n) Days of week, months Friday, Sunday, Thaipusam, Hari Emirates, the Sahara, the United
and festivals Gawai Kingdom, the Nile, the Gobi Desert.
(o) When the Collective Cattle
Nouns are used in Society
general sense. Mankind
(p) With materials when wine, glass, gold, wool
they are considered in
general sense