Articles

Articles are the words a, an and the. They are used in different
ways to refer to countable and uncountable nouns. There are two
types of articles: definite article the and indefinite articles a and
an.
THE
The definite article the is used:
(a) Before a particular person or thing which may be singular or
plural
The boy over there is my brother.
The bananas are ripe.
(b) Before superlatives
He is the best among us.
She is the most hardworking among them.
(c) Before a person, a place or a thing, which may be singular or
plural, already mentioned
She is carrying the new bag she bought yesterday.
This is the zoo I visited last week.
Are these the materials you are looking for?
(d) Before a person, a place or a thing which is the only one of its
kind
The president, the king
The specialist centre, the Muslim
The sum, the moon
(e) Before a singular noun or an adjective representing a whole
class
The dolphin is an intelligent animal.
The young must respect the elders.
(f) With names of seas, rivers, mountains, some countries and
famous buildings
The Gombak River, the United States of America, the Taj
Mahal
the first, the second, the last

A, An
The indefinite articles a and an are used with singular countable
nouns.
a) A is used with word beginning with a consonant sound
A basket
A town
A trade
A tournament
A drum


b) A is used with words beginning with a vowel sound and a
silent h
An elephant
An Indian
An honour
An hour
c) A and an are used to refer to a persons occupation, religion
and nationality
Ravi works as an engineer.
He is a Hindu.
He is an Indian.
d) A and an are used when mentioning something for the first
time.
Zero article or no article
Articles are not used before:
(a) The name of a town, city, state or country
Malaysia is a beautiful country.
We live in Perak.
(b) Plural and uncountable nouns
Eggs are nutritious food.
Grass grows everywhere.
(c) Names of roads, meals, games and certain illness
I live in Rose Graden.
I play hockey.
He has chicken pox.