| There are only three articles in English: a, an , and the. |
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| There are two types of articles: |
| 1. Indefinite a, an |
| 2. Definite the. |
| When we talk about things in general, we usually don't use articles. |
| For example: |
| Cars are expensive." This means that all cars are expensive. |
| The cars are expensive." This means that the cars I am talking about are expensive; not all cars. |
| Indefinite articles - a and an |
|---|
| When we talk about something that is not specifically known to the person we are talking to, we use the indefinite articles. |
| We use a and an before nouns that introduce something or someone we have not introduced before: |
| For example: |
| I bought an umbrella. |
| I bought a car yesterday. |
| As a general rule, use a before single nouns that begin with consonants. |
|---|
| a banana, a cat, a monkey, a football, a door, a window a car and a house. |
| Use an when the noun you are referring to begins with a vowel. |
| an apple, an egg, an orange, an ice – cream, an umbrella an eagle. |
| Definite Article - the |
|---|
| When both the listener and you know the subject you are referring to, then you use "the" before the noun. |
| For example: |
| The car you bought was wrecked. |
| Please, lock the door. We know what car and what door. |
| When you mention something for the first time, you should use "a, an". Once you mention it, you use "the" . |
| For example: |
| He bought a car and a pickup. |
| The car is cheap, but the pickup is expensive. |
| When we talk about known things, we use "the before the noun even if we mention it for the first time. |
| For example: |
| the Nile, the South Pole, the English channel, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth |
| But if you want to describe these known things, you use "a" and "an". |
| For example: |
| I love the world. / It is awonderful world. |
| No one can predict the future?" / "It is a bleak future. |