The article

There are three article in English: The Definite Article, The Indefinite Article and The Zero
Article.
The Definite Article
The Definite Article the has the same form for singular and plural, and for all the genders:
The boy is not at home; The windows are open. The is pronounced // before a consonant sound:
the book, the hat, or /i:/ before vowel sounds or before a mute h: the apple, the honour.
Sometimes, if we want to draw attention to the noun that follows, the is pronounced /i:/ even
before consonants.
The Definite Article is used:
1. When the noun had already been mentioned or it is well known:
Yesterday I say a film. The film was very interesting.
Open the door, please!
2. Before nouns which are considered unique, "the only use": the earth, the Bible, the sky, the
sun.
3. Before a noun that is particularized by a relative clause:
This is the boy who broke my window.
4. Before a noun followed by a prepositional phrase: the capital of France, the home with large
windows, the road to Swansea.
5. Before a singular noun used as a representative of a class:
The elephant is a big animal.
When such nouns are turned into the plural, the definite article is no longer used:
Elephants are big animals
6. Before a common noun followed by a proper noun which indentifies it: the novelist
Hemingway, the play Macbeth. But, nouns ecpressing professions usually follow the proper
nouns and are preceded by the: Brown, the lawyer, Jackson, the singer. Similarly, nouns in
apposition take the before them: Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
7. Before the name of a country made up of smaller entities or which has a plural form: The
U.K., The Netherlands. In a few cases the common noun that accompanies the geographical
name has been dropped, being easily understood, and then the geographical name is
preceded by the: The Sahara (desert), The Mississippi (river)
8. Before names of rivers, seas, oceans, chains of mountains, group of islands or islands in of-
phrase: The Thames, The Black Sea, The Pacific (Ocean), The Carpathians, The Rocky
Mountains, The Hebrides, The Isle of Man.
9. Before names of ships, trains, aeroplanes: The Titanic, The Flying Scotsman
10. Before names of shops, hotels, buildings, institutions: The Ritz Hotel, The White House
11. Before names of people to particularize a certain person:
The John I'm talking about is not your friend.
12. Before plural names to refer to a group as a whole: The Browns, The Tudors
13. Before adjectives, Past Participles or Gerunds used to represent a whole class: the rich, the
poor, the dead, the accused, the grayhaired, the missing (=the ones who are missing)
14. Before names of nationalities to refer to a group as a whole: The English, The French
15. Before superlatives and ordinal numbers: the best, the longest, the most interesting, the
first
16. Before names of musicals instruments: to play the piano/violin/guitar
17. Before names of publications: The Guardian, The Times
18. Before names of days, month, seasons, when the reference, is made to a special day, month,
season, or when these names are preceded by the prepositions in or during:
I remenber the Sunday we left London.
I think I met her in the January of 1980
19. Before historical epochs or documents: The Stone Ages, The Middle Age, The Magna Carta
20. In a number of phrases: by the way, on the one had/on the other hand, in the country, in
the mountains, at the seaside, for the time being, in the meanwhile, one the whole, in the
morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, the more ... the merrier, to tell the truth.
The Indefinite Article
The Indefinite Article a/an is, historically, an adjective, being a weak form of one. A is