Meaning of articles in English. The definite article THE in English

Rules for the use of definite and indefinite articles (Articles) in spoken English.

The correct use of the indefinite and definite articles in English speech is very important for mutual understanding. When communicating with an English-speaking person, you risk being misunderstood if you make mistakes in using the article.

What is an article?

An article in English is a function word, which is one of the main formal features of a noun, defines it, stands before the noun or before the word that defines it. The article is not used independently, has no meaning and is not translated into Russian.

Example

a pen - pen
a blue pen - blue pen

In Slavic languages and, in particular, in Russian, articles do not exist, so many students of English have difficulty understanding how, where and why to use articles. In English, by using articles, a clarification is made - we are talking about an abstract or concrete subject.

Indefinite article

The indefinite article has two forms: a And an, used before singular countable nouns. Form a[ə] used before words that begin with a consonant. Form an[æn] used before words that begin with a vowel sound.

Indefinite (a/an)

The indefinite article a (an) is used:

1. When we mention a subject for the first time.
Example:
I saw a cat. - I saw a cat.

2. Before the names of professions.
Example:
I am a doctor. - I am a doctor.

3. Before a noun, if it is preceded by an adjective that describes it.
Example:
She is a beautiful woman. - She is a beautiful woman.

4. In combinations

a couple
a pair
a little
a few

Definite article

The definite article has one form the [ði:], is used when we are talking about something specific or previously encountered in a context, conversation, or something that is known to the interlocutor from his general knowledge. Definite article the comes from the word that (that), can be used with singular and plural nouns, with countable and uncountable.

Although the article the It is always written the same way, its pronunciation differs depending on what letter the word following it begins with. Before vowels the pronounced with a long at the end (transcription [ði:]), and before consonants - with the sound [ə] (transcription [ðə]).

Definite (the)

The definite article the is used:

1. When we talk about an object or person that has already been mentioned before or the context makes it clear what we mean.
Example:
I saw a cat. The cat was black.
We've talked about this cat before.

Where is your son? - Where is your son?
He is in the kitchen. - He's in the kitchen.
The house only has one kitchen, so it's clear what we mean.

2. Before items that are unique or exist in a single copy.

The Sun, the Moon, the President (there is only one president in the country)

3. Before adjectives in the superlative degree the best.

4. Before names:

seas (the Black Sea);
rivers (the Danube);
oceans (the Atlantic Ocean);
newspaper names (The Times);
hotels (the Black Sea hotel);
theaters, galleries, museums.

Zero article

No article

The article is not used:

1. If we talk about a subject in general, as a class.
For example: “I am afraid of dogs.” - I'm afraid of dogs.
I'm not afraid of any specific dog, but of all dogs in general.
That is, I'm talking about dogs in general as a class.

2. The article is not used before:

names of countries (England);
- exceptions: the USA, The Great Britain;
names of cities (London);
street names (Bakers street);
languages (English);
airports, stations.

3. Articles are not used in expressions:

at home;
at school;
at university;
at work / to work;
in bed / to bed;
by bus / by train / by car.

Do practice exercises

Supply “a/an”, “the” or “--“:

Example

He is (_) strong man. – He is a strong man.

I'm going to bed. I've got (_) headache.
Paris is (_) capital of France.
I'll be back in (_) minute.
(_) black is her favorite color.
I go to (_) cinema twice (_) week.
Coffee (_) produced in Brazil.
They make (_) good coffee here.
She does not know (_) English, she speaks (_) Spanish.
My brother, (_) geographic teacher, knows (_) lot about it.
I saw (_) wonderful picture.
Mister Alan grandma was (_) artist.
(_) cats should eat fish.
She is (_)economical woman.
(_) president is changing every 4 years.
I bought (_) couple of glasses in (_) museum yesterday.

In any language there are rules, and there are exceptions. The former are subject to explanation and logic, the latter to rote learning. If you learning English language, and Russian is your native language, you are incredibly lucky! You will have to cram less than you would have to if you were learning Russian.

Getting acquainted with such topics in English as modal verbs or articles, you may not agree with me: there are so many rules that your head is spinning. And yet, I will allow myself to insist on my point. The variety of cases of use can be reduced to a few main points, and in all other cases you need to be able to find the logic of the first. And, of course, you will have to remember the rest. This article will discuss the most basic rules for using articles and situations when an article is not required at all.

As you know, in English language There are 2 types of articles: uncertain (a/an) - for countable nouns. in the singular, which is omitted in the plural, and definite(the).

The logic of all the rules for using articles comes down to several main points.

Indefinite article

indefinite article a/an is an evolved Old English numeral "one". This fact determines 2 basic rules for using this article.

because this is a former numeral, a/an can be used only with countables nouns (which we can count):

a car, a cup, a lamp , a bottle, an apple

Have a drink. There is a bottle of wine in the refrigerator.

because this is the numeral “1”, we can use a/anonly with countable singular nouns Plural the article disappears:

_ car s, _ cup s, _ lamp s, _ bottle s

Have a drink. There are (several) _ bottle s of wine in the refrigerator.

indefinite article highlights one item out of many like it, no different from him. You have minimal information about him.

I had a sandwich for breakfast.

There is a book on the table.

Definite article

Like the indefinite, it came from Old English, which had demonstrative pronoun that. And if you point to something, then your interlocutor will immediately understand what kind of object you are talking about, and all uncertainty disappears. Definite The article is called definite because it is clear from the situation what person/object/event you are talking about

The sandwich that I ate for breakfast(determines which particular sandwich was bad) was obviously bad. I feel sick now.

The book on the table(book lying on the table) is the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

And now about situations when the article is not needed at all

The article is not used if

If you have uncountable noun and you do general statement

_ Love is a wonderful feeling.

_ Coffee is good for your health when consumed in moderation.

I often listen to _ music.

The word is part of an expression that is an exception and must be remembered

What did you have for breakfast?

It's time to go to bed now.

However ATTENTION! There are a number of expressions that will be used either without an article or with a definite article, depending on the situation and the meaning you intend. These are expressions containing words prison, hospital, school, university, church and some others.

If we find ourselves in one of these institutions and use them, so to speak, for their intended purpose, that is, serving time (prison), undergoing treatment (hospital), receiving general education (school) or studying a specific specialization (university), reading prayers and confessing (church), then in all expressions with these words there will be no article. In all other cases, an article is needed. Compare:

Table. Using the article with the names of institutions in English

And now a little workshop. Here are a number of combinations with articles. It is necessary to explain the use of a particular article

Why do we say:

Can you turn off the light, please? - Because it is clear that the lights need to be turned off in the room where the speaker is
I took a taxi to the station. Because not just any station, but a station in this city, and you go to a specific bus or railway station
Do you like _ Chinese food? Chinese food/cuisine - A general concept consisting of an uncountable noun and an adjective
I'd like to talk to the manager, please. - Because the store has one main manager to whom you can contact with questions, complaints, etc.
The sun is a star. Because there are many different stars, and the sun is one of them.
I often go to the cinema/theatre. - This probably happened historically: earlier in cities, if there were cinemas or theaters, then, so to speak, there was only one copy. Therefore, when you say that you are going to the cinema, there is no question about which one.
I must go to the bank. - You contact the bank in which you have an account, and not just any bank.
I listen to _ classical music from time to time. - Classical music is a general concept consisting of an uncountable noun and an adjective
Is there a bank near here? - This is a situation in which you don’t care which bank branch you go to. For example, when you are abroad and you need to withdraw money from your card.
I work in the city center - There is only one center in the city.
Can you tell the time? - You want to know the current time
_ Doctors are paid more than _ teachers. - Doctors in general. You can also say: A doctor is paid more than a teacher.
Who is the best player in your team? There is only one best player. When you talk about the very best(superlative degree) - the best, the biggest, the most beautiful, the most interesting etc. always use the.

I repeat once again that you can read about stable combinations with one or another article in any grammar textbook; all other cases are amenable to the logic outlined above. Language, after all, is a rather logical thing, and sometimes taking a grammar test is akin to solving mathematical equations or logical problems. Therefore, use logic, remember the exceptions, and the articles will obey you!

This article explains the difference between the indefinite (a/an) and definite (the) articles.

What is an article? At its core, the article is an adjective. Like adjectives, the article modifies the noun.

There are two articles in English: the and a/an. The article the is used before definite or special nouns; The article a/an is used to change the meaning of indefinite and non-special nouns. We call the article the definite article, and the article a/an the indefinite article.

the = definite article

a/an = indefinite article

For example, if you say “Let”s go in the room,” then this means a certain specific room. If you say, “Let”s go in a room,” then you mean any room, and not any specific one.

Another explanation is that the article the is used to highlight some particular or special member of a group. For example, "I just heard the most horrible story." There are many stories, but only one of them is the most terrible. Therefore, the definite article the is used here.

The article "a/an" is used to highlight some non-special or non-special member of the group. For example, "I would like to go to a pub." This phrase does not refer to any specific pub. This means any pub. There are many pubs and I want to go to any of them. I don't mean any specific pub.

Let's look at each of the articles in more detail.

Indefinite articles: a and an

The articles "a" and "an" indicate that the noun is indefinite and it refers to any member of the group. Example:

"My son really wants a cat for Christmas." This means any cat. We don't know which cat exactly because we haven't found it yet.
"Somebody call a doctor!" This also means any doctor. We don't need any special doctor; we need any available doctor.
"When I was in the church, I saw an angel!" Here we are talking about one, non-specific object, in this case about an angel. There may be several angels in the church, but there is only one that we are talking about here.

Remember that the use of the articles a or an depends on what sound the word following the article begins with. So...

a + singular noun starting with a consonant: a toy; a cat; a zoo; a bike; a dog
an + singular noun starting with a vowel: an angel; an apple; an avocado; an olive an ear
a + a singular noun starting with a consonant: a user (sounds like “yoo-zer”, that is, starting with a consonant “y”, so the indefinite article “a” is used); a university; a unicycle
an + noun starting with an unpronounceable "h": an hour
a + noun starting with a pronounced "h": a horse
- In some cases, if the letter "h" is pronounced, for example in the word "historical," then the indefinite article an can be used.
  However, the use of the indefinite article a is more common and desirable.
  A historical event is just something that happened in the past.

Remember that these rules also apply when using acronyms:

Who is a Member of Technical Staff (MTS)? This is an engineer and his/her work effort in a technical subject area within the organization mission and all the elements needed to support that engineer. Therefore, an MTS can also be considered a "manyear of technical service".

This rule also applies in another case, when acronyms begin with a consonant letter, but a vowel sound is pronounced:

Apply Now for an MBA (Master of Business Administration) Program in one year.
The algorithm to compute the Cholesky factor of an SPD (Symmetric Positive Definite) matrix is close to the Gaussian elimination algorithm.

If a noun is qualified by an adjective, then the choice between the articles a and an depends on the first sound in the adjective that follows the article:

a broken wing
an unusual gem
a European city (sounds like "yer-o-pi-an", that is, the word begins with a consonant sound "y")

Remember that in English we use indefinite articles to indicate group membership:

I am a welder. (I am a member of a large group known as welders.)
Cody is an Irishman. (Cody is a member of the group of people known as the Irish.)
Frank is a practicing Catholic. (Frank is a member of the group of people known as Catholics.)

Definite article: the

The definite article is used before nouns in both the singular and plural if the noun is definite or special. The article the indicates that the noun is definite and refers to some member of the group. Example:

"The cat that scratched me ran away." Here we are talking about a certain cat who scratched me.

"I was happy to see the doctor who saved my dog!" It also talks about a certain doctor. Even if we don't know his name, he is still a special doctor because he saved my dog.

"I saw the tiger at the zoo." Here we are talking about a certain definite noun. Perhaps there is only one tiger in the zoo.

Countable and uncountable nouns

With uncountable nouns, you can use the definite article the, or you can do without the article at all.

"I like to sail over the water" (meaning a specific part of the water) or "I like to sail over water" (meaning any water surface).
“He spilled the drink all over the floor” (meaning a certain drink, perhaps one that was purchased in the morning of the same day) or “He spilled drink all over the floor” (any drink in general).

The indefinite articles "a/an" can only be used with countable nouns.

"I need a bottle of rose."
"I need a new glass of drink."

In most cases, you cannot say "She wants a water" unless you mean, for example, a bottle of water.

Using the definite article the with place names

There are special rules for using the definite article the with place names.

The definite article the Not used before:

names of most countries and territories: Georgia, Spain, Italy; but the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, the Republic of Poland, the United States
names of cities or states: Quebec, Miami, Texas
street names: Independence Blvd., Elm St.
names of lakes and bays: Lake Tahoe, Lake Bell, with the exception of names of a group of lakes, for example the Great Lakes
names of mountains: Mount Rushmore, Mount Vernon, with the exception of names of mountain ranges, for example the Alps or the Rockies, as well as unusual names like the Matterhorn
names of continents: Australia, Europe
island names (Cocos Island, Maui, Key West), with the exception of island chains, for example, the Aleutians, the Hebrides, or the Canary Islands

The definite article the is used before:

names of rivers, oceans and seas: the Nile, the Atlantic
names of points on the globe: the Equator, the South Pole
names of geographical areas: the Middle East, the West
names of deserts, forests, bays and peninsulas: the Sahara, the Persian Gulf, the Black Forest, the Iberian Peninsula

Cases when articles are not used

Articles are not used with some common types of nouns:

with names of languages or nationalities: Chinese, English, Spanish, Korean (if you do not mean the population of a nation: " The Turks are known for their warm hospitality.")
with names of sports: football, baseball, hockey
with the names of academic subjects: physics, history, biology, geology

Watch this video to get a basic understanding of articles in English before reading the article.

Why are articles needed in English?

Did you know that the article is a part of speech that does not exist in Russian?

We change stress and word order to give a phrase a flavor that is strictly fixed in English.

See how the meaning of the phrase changes:

I like the car.
I like the car.

Do you sense a catch? In the first case, it is not clear what kind of machine we are talking about, but in the second we are talking about a specific machine.

In English, words cannot be interchanged, so articles are used to give the desired connotation to a phrase A, An And The.

Article rules

The concept of the article in English grammar is associated with the category of definiteness. Simplified, the article rule sounds like this:

Remember!
If we are talking about an unknown object, then the indefinite article A / An. If we are talking about something specific, then an article is placed before it The.

Assignment: What articles should be used in the following examples?

We bought a car.

We bought the car we saw yesterday.

Click on the arrows to get the answer.

Clue.
Article The descended from This(this) - you can point with your finger.
A / An descended from One(one).

That's why the article A/An used only in the singular!

In a simplified form, the grammatical rules of articles can be represented as follows:

Plural noun?
Countable noun?
Have you heard of him before? (indefinite or definite article)
Are we talking about something in common?

What is the difference between the articles A and An?

Let's repeat!
Indefinite article A/An(which comes from one) We put only before in the singular!

So what's the difference between A And An?

Article A is placed before words that begin with consonants (a c at, a h ouse, a y ard), and An- before words that begin with vowels (an a pple, an h our).

Let this picture pop up before your eyes when you choose your food a And an.

When do we use the indefinite article?

1. When we classify an object, we attribute it to a certain group of objects.

A cow is an animal. - A cow is an animal.
An apple is a fruit. - An apple is a fruit.

2. When we characterize an object.

My mother is a nurse. - My mother is a nurse.
He is an idiot! - He is idiot!

Many foreign languages have such a part of speech as the article (The Article). This is a auxiliary part of speech and acts as a noun determiner. There is no such part of speech in the Russian language, so it is difficult for Russian-speaking people starting to learn English to get used to using articles in speech. How and why are articles used in English?

But if we do not use them, difficulties may arise in communicating with an Englishman, because it will not be clear to him what kind of subject we are talking about, whether he knows anything about it or not. To avoid problems in communication and to simply learn how to express yourself correctly, it is important and necessary to study articles in English and cases of their use.

Today we will talk about such an important topic as the use of articles in English, and we will also look at cases when it is necessary to use articles.

There are two types of articles in English:

Definite Article
Indefinite Article (indefinite article)

THE- definite article or Definite Article, and it is pronounced [ ðǝ ] when a noun begins with a consonant and [ ðɪ ] when the noun begins with a vowel. For example: the [ ðǝ ] school, the [ ðɪ ] apple.
A or AN— indefinite (Indefinite Article). When a noun begins with a consonant, we say " a banana", but if with a vowel, then " an orange."

To better understand what the difference is between the definite and indefinite article in English, we will give an example in Russian: When articles are used in English

Cases of using articles in English

Here it is important to remember what rules exist for using articles in English:

The article is used before every common noun.
We do not use the article when the noun is preceded by a demonstrative or possessive pronoun, another noun in the possessive case, a cardinal number or the negation no (not not!).

This is a girl. - It's a girl.
My sister is an engineer — My sister is an engineer.
I see the girls jumping the rope. — I see girls jumping rope.

As a rule, the indefinite article in English is used when the subject is spoken about for the first time, as well as if nothing is known about the subject. The definite article (Definite Article) is present where something is already known about the subject or it is mentioned again in conversation. Let's see this with a few examples. Note:

He has got a computer.- He has a computer (what kind of computer, what’s wrong with it, what brand, etc. - we don’t know.
The computer is new. - The computer is new (Now some information about the computer has appeared - it is new).
This is a tree. — This is a tree (it is not clear what kind of tree, nothing is known about it).
The tree is green. — The tree is green (something is already known, the tree is covered with green leaves).
What articles are used and when in English?

Indefinite Article a, an can be used in exclamatory sentences beginning with the word what: What a surprise! - What a surprise! What a beautiful day! - What a beautiful day!
Indefinite article a, an in English it is used only with countable nouns: This is a book. - This is a book. I see a boy. - I see a boy.
Definite Article is used with both countable and uncountable nouns: The book I read is very interesting. — The book I am reading is very interesting. The meat you've bought is fresh. — The meat you bought is fresh.
Indefinite Article is used before an adjective if it is followed by a noun: We have a large family. - We have a big family. I read an interesting book. — I’m reading an interesting book.
The indefinite article can be used in a sentence to mean “one, one, one”: My father has three children, two sons and a daughter. — My father has three children - two sons and one daughter. Today I bought a copy-book and two pens. — Today I bought one notebook and two pens.
Definite Article is used in the superlative degree of adjectives: Pink Street is the largest street in that town. — Pink Street is the largest in this city.
The definite article is used with geographical names, that is, before the names of rivers, canals, seas, mountains, oceans, bays, straits, archipelagos. But it is not used with the names of lakes, countries, continents. Exceptions: the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, the Ukraine, the Congo, the Crimea.

And now, friends, pay attention to which stable phrases in English always contain a definite article:

In the south
In the north
In the east
In the west
To the south
To the north
To the east
To the west
What's the use?
To the cinema
To the theater
To the shop
To the market
At the cinema
At the theater
At the shop
At the market.

There are still many individual cases of using articles in English. We will look at them in more detail in articles, which are separately devoted to the definite article and separately to the indefinite article.

In general, the situation with articles in English is very serious. They need and should be used in speech, without them there is simply no way, otherwise we ourselves can get confused and confuse our interlocutor in the information presented. And in order not to get confused about which articles exactly and when to use them, just memorize these cases. And you will see how this small but very necessary service part of speech will bring clarity to your conversation, and your speech will be beautiful and complete! So let the kids the, a and an become your assistants in your English speech!