ARTICLES (A, An & The) The words a, an and the are called Articles.

A is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound or a vowel with a consonant sound. A word with a consonant sound a badge a country a hotel A vowel with a consonant sound a uniform a university a European man

NOTE: The Eu and u in some words like European, uniform, and university sound like the consonant yu. An is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound or words beginning with a silent h. A word with a vowel sound an apple an egg an iron - Basically we use a or an: 1. to introduce a noun for the first time He has a parrot. I saw an eagle flying yesterday. 2. to indicate or show weight, number or time a day a litre of juice a hundred days 3. to describe occupation, religion or nationality Marys son is a lawyer. Jacob is a Christian. Jan is an Australian. We use the: 1. to refer to a particular thing or person, or one already referred to. There is a boy knocking on the door. The boy says that he must see you now. The girl cried when you teased her yesterday. 2. to refer to unique things the West the sun 3. with the superlative form of adjectives the longest line the biggest car 4. to use before musical instruments (in general sense) I play the violin. Can you play the guitar? 5. to use a singular noun to represent a whole class The coconut tree is a useful tree. The horse is a noble animal and 2002 is the Year of Horse according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Words beginning with a silent h an heir an hour an honest boy

6. to use before some proper names Ocean and seas the Atlantic and the Black Sea Rivers the Amazon and the Nile Deserts the Sahara Countries include words like Republic and Kingdom) the United Kingdom, the Republic of China 7. to use before the names of certain books the Sutra the Quran 8. to use before an adjective when the noun is understood The poor are always being neglected. The rich become richer. 9. to use with ordinals The eighth chapter of this book is very interesting. He was the first in class for the 100m event. 10. to use before the names of the communities and nations The Muslims The Hindus The Chinese The Malays No Articles or Zero Articles No article is used in certain cases. The following table shows instances when no article is used and when is should be used. No Article Definite Article (a) Meals Lunch is served at noon. The lunch we had yesterday was tasty. (b) Times of day I study at night. We have supper in the evening. (c) Mountains Mount Fuji The Himalayas (d) Roads, streets High Street The main road (e) Countries Sweden, France The Philippines* (f) Languages Malay, English The Malay language (g)Places Myra is going to court. They gathered outside the court. Mother went to market. The market was crowded. (h) Methods of travel I will go to Penang by train. I will take the early train tomorrow. (i) Abstract Noun beauty, honest, ugliness NOTES: (j) Proper Noun Muhammad, Shakespeare *the is used before names of seas, rivers, (k) Before a noun used in Man is mortal. groups of islands or mountains, a wider sense Woman is tender-hearted. kingdoms, republics, deserts, plural (l) Before nouns in certain at dawn names of countries: the Atlantic Ocean, idiomatic phrases catch fire the River Thames, the Netherlands, the (m) Before the name of AIDS, cholera, football, cricket, Arctic (land and sea), the Antarctic diseases, sports and Chemistry, Biology (land and sea), the Alps, the United sciences States of America, the United Arab (n) Days of week, months Friday, Sunday, Thaipusam, Hari Emirates, the Sahara, the United and festivals Gawai Kingdom, the Nile, the Gobi Desert. (o) When the Collective Cattle Nouns are used in Society general sense. Mankind (p) With materials when wine, glass, gold, wool they are considered in general sense