Articles: a, an, the

Grammar

Articles: a, an, the

The correct use of the articles (a, an and the) is one of the most difficult points in English grammar. Fortunately, most articles mistakes do not matter too much. Even if we leave all the articles out of a sentence, it is usually possible to understand it.

Please can you lend me pound of butter until end of week? Wrong

However it is better to use the articles correctly if possible.

A/an means “one” and it is used with singular countable nouns.

Rewrite the following sentences using a or an:

She lives in nice big house
My father is engineer
Girl called this morning
She is beautiful woman
What's that? It's calculator

“The” means something like “you know which one I mean”. It is used with uncountable, (the salt) singular and plural nouns (the car, the cars).

People live on the Earth. (Unique things)
He's the best student in class. (Superlative)
The Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the Amazon River, (Seas, rivers, oceans, deserts)
The Andes, the Canary Islands, the U.S.A. (Mountain ranges, group of islands, some countries)
The Smiths are visiting us tonight. (Family names)
She plays the violin. (Musical instruments)

Fill in the blanks with a, an or the.

She's got two children: __ girl and __ boy. ___ boy's fourteen and ___ girl's eight.
Who's ___ girl in ___ car over there?
Will you close ___ door?
Where is Ann? In ___ kitchen.

The definite article “the” is not used when we refer to:

Names of streets and mountains.
I live nearby the 6th avenue
Days and months.
I don’t work the Saturdays
To talk about things in general.
The women love the flowers
Sports, games and colors.
My favorite color is the blue.
Abstract nouns.
The love is all around.
Meals.
She doesn’t cook the lunch on Sundays
The words: hospital, school, work, home, bed, church, prison, college, when they are used for the purpose for which they exist. He’s in the prison

Correct the mistakes:

The 5th street, the Everest
The Fridays I like to go dancing out of town.
The cats like the milk.
The diamonds are expensive.
People live on Earth.
I like the volleyball.
They usually play the tag on recess.
The love is a beautiful thing.
The breakfast is at 7 a.m. on weekdays.
I am at the work.
They don't go to the school on Thursdays.
I was in the church last Sunday morning.
Darling, where are you? I'm in the bed.