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Articles can either be definite or indefinite. They combine to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun.
Definite article: The
Indefinite article: A / An
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| 7.1 |
Indefinite article 'a/an'
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Used when we don’t specify the people or things we are talking about.
Examples: I met an online friend.
I work in a factory in New York.
I borrowed a pencil from a passenger sitting next to me.
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| Indefinite articles |
Examples |
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A
used before a consonant sound (consonant sounds are other than the a,e,i,o,u)
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Examples: A dog
A pet
A person
A university
**Note: for university, although it starts with the vowel ‘u’, it uses article a instead of an because it is pronounced as a consonant sound.
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An
used before a vowel sound (a,e,i,o,u)
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Examples: An ant
An encyclopaedia
An engineer
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| 7.2 |
Definite article 'the'
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Used when talking about a specific person, topic or things that both the speaker and the listener know.
Examples: The football match last night was intense.
The news is filled with the new election.
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Other than that, when we speak about someone or something for the first time, we use the indefinite articles a and an. The next time the same person or thing is repeated, we use the definite article the.
Examples: I live in a condominium. The condominium is in the heart of the city.
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We can also opt to not use articles when:
1. Talking about countries, states, counties or provinces, lakes and mountains except when the country is a collection of states such as "The United States".
Examples: He lives in Kuala Lumpur near KLCC .
They live in Northern Malaysia.
They climbed Mount Everest.
2. With plurals and uncountable nouns to talk about things in general:
Examples: He writes songs.
She likes cakes.
Do you like jazz music?
She ate bread with butter in the morning.
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| 7.3 |
Articles with countable and uncountable nouns
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The can be used with uncountable nouns, or the article can be dropped entirely as mentioned above.
- "The two countries reached the peace after a long disastrous war" (some specific peace treaty) or "The two countries reached peace after a long disastrous war" (any peace).
- "He drank the water" (some specific water- for example, the water his wife brought him from the kitchen) or "He drank water." (any water)
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It is unusual to use a/an for uncountable nouns. You can't say "I’d like a milk” (x)
a/an can be used only with countable nouns.
- I'd like a piece of cake.
- I lent him a book.
- I drank a cup of tea.
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