Articles: 'a', 'an', 'the'

Do you know how to use a, an and the? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how articles are used.

She's a doctor.
I need an umbrella.
Have you heard the news?
I don't like spiders.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1: Grammar test 1: Articles 1

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

Here are some of the most important things to know about using articles.

Jobs

When we say what people's jobs are, we usually use a/an.

He's an architect.
She's a scientist.
My grandmother was a teacher.

Singular nouns

Singular, countable nouns always have an article – a/an or the (or another determiner – my, your, this, that, etc.).

We use a/an – the indefinite article – when we talk about something for the first time, or something that is part of a group or type.

I saw a good film yesterday.
Do you want a drink?

We use a when the word that follows it begins with a consonant sound. We use an when it's followed by a vowel sound. This makes pronunciation easier.

She has a university degree.
It took me an hour to get home.

We use the – the definite article – when the listener already knows which thing we are talking about because it was mentioned before or because there's only one of them.

I'm going to take the dog for a walk.
Have you seen the car key?
They go to the school next to the bridge.

Things in general

When we talk about things in general, we normally use a plural or uncountable noun with no article.

Birds eat worms.
Water freezes at 0°C.
Children need a lot of sleep.

Particular groups of things

When we talk about a particular group of things, we use the.

We went to the zoo and saw the kangaroos. (These are the particular kangaroos in that zoo – not kangaroos in general.)

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2: Grammar test 2: Articles 1

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

A1 - Elementary

A2 - Pre-intermediate

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Hi rizzurapture,

Although both of them don't know exactly who the person is, it is still specific in the sense that they do not mean "any person". They mean a particular person - the person who is right for the job or whatever thing they are talking about. Here, "the right person" gives the idea of "the perfect person" or "the person who is better than anyone else" - i.e., there is only one such person existing (although their identity is unknown). It is more specific and defined than saying, e.g., "You should get a good person for the job", using the indefinite rather than definite article, because there are assumed to be many "good" people - but there is only one "right person".

I hope that helps to understand it.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Greetings, i have a question; why we use "the" with moon? It is obvious wich moon we mentioned, isn't it?

Hello again Blizzard93,

It's because there is only one moon (in the case of Earth). You can see this in this more detailed explanation of definite articles.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

To understand articles needs to do more practice.
Thanks for these lessons ...

Thank you, articles are always confusing for me.However I will do my best to learn articles.

It's little bit hard but you can best way to improve your grammar skills

Good afternoon!
Tell me please
Salt is an uncountable noun.
In this sentence :"Could you please pass me the salt?", both know what it is about (about salt). And we put "the". Does this mean that "the" is put before uncountable nouns if both know what it is about?

Hello Alisa,

Yes, that's right -- you can use 'the' before both countable and uncountable nouns. As you say, in this case 'the' is used because the speaker assumes that the listener knows what they are referring to: the bowl of salt or salt shaker on the table. It's probably also the only salt that is on the table.

If you'd like to read more about how to use 'the', I'd also suggest having a look at The definite article: 'the', and you might find it useful to look at our Uncount nouns and Common problems with count and uncount nouns (especially the Substances as count or uncount nouns section) pages too. These pages go into a little more detail than this one.

Could I also ask that you please use Roman letters (the English alphabet) to write your username? That way other users can read your name easily too! Thanks in advance.