Grammar 1 :Articles in English

 Articles :

The words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’, as known are articles, make a challenge for most student of English . This is not surprising, since there is no similarities in construction in many languages, and those languages that do have articles do not necessarily use them in the same way as English.

If you want to decide which one to use from those article, consider this chart:

For example:

I bought a car – car is a singular, countable noun; therefore it has to have an article. Your reader does not know which car you are referring to, therefore it is ‘indefinite’. The car I bought is interesting - car is again a singular, countable noun; therefore it has to have an article. In this case, we know whichcar you are referring to (the car you bought), 

How can I know which article to use? 

A single, countable noun should have an article if there was no other number  , determiner / possessive (ex. two, our, this). If the noun was plural, an article may not be important." Look first at your noun".

Indefinite article (a/an)

If the noun is singular and also countable, and sometimes this is the first time you have mentioned it, then you  usually need the indefinite article :

 I bought a pen – we do not know which pen. There is a flower outside – we do not know anything about the flower.

If the noun starts with a vowel , then the article an is used: an apple, an umbralla, an hour .

Definite article (the)

If your reader  understands what you are referring to, then you will usually use the definite article:

I bought a Novel last week. The Novel is about Love.

    ( You have just mentioned the Novel, so you both know which one.)

Some things are taken to be common knowledge in English and therefore take the definite article: 

• Decades – she was born in the 1960s.
•   Currencies –The  Kuwaiti-Dinar is getting stronger against the Dollar.
•   Superlatives and ordinals – The second book in the series is the best one.
•   Oceans, seas and rivers –The Nile flows into the Mediterranean.
•   Plural or ‘united’ countries – the United States of America.
•   Adjectives used as nouns – The poor will always face a challenge in poor countries.

No article

We do not need an article if a noun is plural or uncountable or indefinite:

1.  Turtles generally live longer than Cats.
2.  Articles are easy to use. 
3. Ink is hard to remove.

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