The Articles in Grammar

Articles

The most frequently used adjectives are a, an and the. These little words are usually called articles and they belong to the class of words called determiners.

A and an are indefinite articles; they refer to one of a general group.

Examples:

A woman arrived.
He is reading a magazine.
She bought a dress today.

Would you like an ice-cream?
An automobile went by.
He waited an hour.

A is used before words beginning with a consonant sound (a car, a bird, a university).
An is used before words beginning with a vowel sound (an umbrella, an hour)

Notice in the sentence, “He waited an hour.”, that an is used before a noun beginning with the consonant h, because the h in hour is not pronounced. Hour is pronounced as if it began with a vowel (like our). Remember that the sound of the noun, not the spelling, determines which indefinite article will be used.

The is the definite article. It indicates that the noun refers to someone or something in particular.

Examples:

The woman arrived.
The automobile went by.
The hour for her departure finally arrived.
He won the race.
Where is the cat?
We are going to the beach.

Videos

The following video explains how articles ("a," "an," and "the") are used in English.

"A," "an," and "the" are those tiny words we tend to forget about. They may sound simple, but there are Standard Edited American English rules of how to use these articles.

This video teaches you how to use 'a', 'an', and 'the' correctly. Many English students make mistakes with these simple words (articles), so make sure you learn how to use them correctly.

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