Articles

There are only three articles in English: a, an and the.

There are two types of articles indefinite 'a' and 'an' or definite 'the'. You also need to know when not to use an article.

The Indefinite Article

A and an are the indefinite articles. They are used before singular nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned before.

They are really the same article, but we say 'a' when the noun we are referring to begins with a consonant, or consonant sound. For example: 

        A city.

        A factory.

        A university.

You use 'an' when the noun you are referring to begins with a vowel, or vowel sound:

        An apple

        An hour

        An elephant 

It's really the sound that matters, not the spelling, and if an adjective gets in the way, it takes over from the noun. For example: 

        My husband sent me an SMS.

The Definite Article

We use' the' when we are talking about a particular thing, or we have already mentioned the thing we are talking about:

•         The bus to Dresden leaves at 7.40.

We also use it to talk about geographical points on the globe, some countries, rivers, oceans, seas, and before certain nouns when we know there is only one of a particular thing:

        What is the best way to learn English?

No Article

We do not need an article to talk about things in general.

'The' does not mean all.

For example:

       "The books are expensive." = (Not all books are expensive, just the ones I'm talking about.)

       "Books are expensive." = (All books are expensive.)

That's all. Let's to the practice!