A, The or Nothing?

How to Master English Articles in 2 Simple Steps

By Marie-Anne Duffeler
https://blog.tjtaylor.net/articles-explained/

‘A’, ‘the’ and ‘an’ – these are called articles and they are the smallest words in English. But
they cause some of the biggest problems.

By the end of this article you will understand how and when to use articles…but why are
these small words so important?

Let me tell you the story of Ugo Umberti, a young Italian lawyer who recently joined a law
firm in London. Ugo is an expert in legal matters, but less so in English…

One day he receives a phone call from Nancy, a businesswoman who needs some legal
advice. She asks to schedule an appointment for Thursday.

This is part of their phone conversation:

– Ugo, I was wondering if we could meet at your office on Thursday.
– Thursday… I’m sorry, Nancy, but that’s not possible unfortunately. I go to prison.
– You go to prison? Really?
– Yes, I’m sorry. I have to.
– Oh…uh…well, in that case I think I’ll call you back later, ok? Thanks.
Nancy never called back, and Ugo lost a potential client.

What did Ugo do wrong? He misused articles!

One little word made a huge difference. As a result, Ugo (and Nancy!) confused ‘go to prison’
with ‘go to the prison’. With no article Ugo was talking about the action or function – ‘go to
prison’ – instead of what he meant to say, which was the location – ‘going to the prison’.

If like Ugo you also feel confused about English articles, read on. All you need to remember
are 2 simple questions – let me explain.

Two simple questions

To choose the right article in English just ask yourself two simple questions:
1. Is the noun countable?
2. Is the noun definite?

All right, let’s see what those questions mean.

Question 1: Is the noun countable?
English nouns can be grouped into 3 big categories: countable nouns, uncountable nouns,
and those that can be either countable or uncountable. Let me explain:

Countable means that the noun can be counted. For example, ‘book’ is countable
and we say, ‘one book’ or ‘two, three, or several books’.

Uncountable nouns cannot be counted and represent something that is not divisible,

such as a quantity, or a material, or an abstract concept. For example, ‘bread’, ‘air’,
‘water’, and ‘love’ are uncountable because they cannot be reduced to a unit.

Mixed nouns. This third category causes many unnecessary difficulties for English
learners: All it means is that the context decides whether some nouns are countable
or uncountable, depending on their meaning.

For example ‘chocolate’ is uncountable when it refers to the food that we use in cooking or
that we love to eat (‘I prefer dark chocolate’), but it is countable when it refers to the drink (‘a
hot chocolate’) or a small, chocolate-covered candy (‘Belgian chocolates’).

Another example of this third category is ‘adventure’: it is uncountable when it means taking
part in dangerous and exciting experiences in general (‘I love adventure’) but it is countable
when it means a specific dangerous and exciting experience (‘a great adventure’).

The diagram below shows this difference: those labelled A are countable nouns and B are
uncountable nouns, while C is the ‘hybrid’ group that are both countable and uncountable
depending on the context:
Why are those categories difficult for English learners? Because they don’t always match
your native language.

For example, in Italian ‘lavoro‘ can be translated as ‘work’ or ‘job’, but only ‘job’ is countable.

So, if you refer to a specific working position (un lavoro), you should say ‘a job’. But if you
mean professional activity in general (‘il lavoro‘), you should use the word ‘work’ with no
article in front of it.

Another example is ‘un consiglio‘: ‘advice’ is the correct translation but it is uncountable, so if
you want to refer to a specific ‘consiglio’, you should say ‘a recommendation’ or ‘a
suggestion’.

How do you know if a noun is countable or not? Unfortunately, nothing in the form of the
noun will tell you that. So, when learning new vocabulary, you need to study the words
themselves and whether they are countable or not.

To help you remember, you can choose to use a specific color to highlight uncountable
nouns in vocabulary lists, or you can memorize them with an example sentence that shows
how they are used – for example, ‘John gives good advice’ will help you remember that
‘advice’ is uncountable.

Also, you can always check whether a word is countable or uncountable in a good dictionary,
such as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

Work

Job [uncountable] a job or activity that you do regularly, especially

in order to earn money [employment]:
 There isn’t a lot of work at this time of year.
 My father started work when he was just 14.
 He’s been out of work (= without a job) for two years.
 More people are in work (= have a job) than ten years ago.

So, after asking ourselves the first question, let’s now turn to the second question:

Question 2: Is the noun definite?

What does ‘definite’ mean? A noun is definite if it refers to an object that is known by the
person who is speaking and by those who are listening.

In other words, the object that is being referred to is obvious to everyone.

For example, if I ask you to “close the door”, you know which door to close because there is
probably only one door to close. So ‘the door’ is definite because it is obvious to you and to
me which door to close. We both know what object I am referring to.

Now let’s look at how objects become definite. What makes nouns definite?

There are 5 situations that make nouns definite.

1. The object has already been mentioned

Let’s start with an example:
Yesterday I went downtown and bought a smart phone. I took a bus to come back.
It was very crowded. A person pushed me while I was on the bus and I
dropped the phone. Fortunately, it didn’t break.

Notice how the smart phone is not definite (or, indefinite) when it is first mentioned.

However, when it is mentioned the second time, it becomes definite, and so ‘the’ is used.
‘The’ is the article we use when the noun is definite.

2. The object is unique or represents a category of things

Let’s look at some examples:
The sun shines a lot in Italy.
The world is changing.
The squirrel is a nervous animal.

We can see that ‘the sun’ and ‘the world’ refer to unique entities. Indeed ‘the sun’ refers to
the one we see every day, while ‘the world’ is our planet, the Earth. In our minds those
objects are unique.

In the third example ‘the squirrel’ is a generalization: it means all the squirrels in general. It
represents the animal category of ‘squirrels.

3. Context makes it obvious

Let’s look at these examples:
You will find our price list in the attached document.
I will start my presentation as soon as you have received the handouts.

The context is clear enough for speaker and listener to know which object is referred to.

In the first situation you know which ‘document’ is being referred to: the one that is attached
to the email. In the second situation ‘the handouts must refer to the ones that you can see
being distributed at that moment.

4. Extra information makes it definite

Consider the following examples:
Our company will pay the cost of your plane ticket to Rome.
The smart phone that I bought is great.

The extra information in the first sentence is called a noun complement (‘of your plane
ticket to Rome’), and in the second sentence it is a relative clause (‘that I bought’).

This extra information makes the object definite and is needed to understand the
sentence. Indeed, if I say only “our company will pay the cost”, you don’t know what I
mean. The cost of what?

This is true of the second example too. If I remove the relative clause and say, “the smart
phone is great”, my sentence is incomplete and unclear. Which smart phone? Yours? Mine?
Or smart phones in general?

5. Ranking makes it definite

Consider the following examples:
Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon.
The most important issue here is safety.

Ranking or comparing objects make them definite because they are compared to other
ones, and so they are identified by contrast: a total of 12 people have walked on the
Moon, but Neil Armstrong is identified as ‘the first’; we realize that there are several
issues, but safety is the issue being compared to the others.
Putting it all together
All right, now that you have answered these two simple questions (countable or
uncountable? definite or indefinite?), you can choose the right article by looking at the
following diagram:

You notice immediately that articles vary according to the type of noun (question 1), to the
context (question 2), and to quantity (singular or plural).

The symbol Ø means ‘zero article’ – in other words, there is nothing before the noun.

Also, some forms are identical (‘the’), so you don’t have to memorize many article forms. And
that’s good news!

Examples
So, let’s apply what you have learnt to some examples:

The noun is countable, indefinite, and singular:

Nancy is a lawyer.
Lawyers work a lot.
The letter you sent me must
be a mistake.
Open the windows, please!
Nature is beautiful.
There are many lawyers and Nancy is one amongst many.
The noun is countable, indefinite, and plural:
We refer to lawyers in general, not a specific group of lawyers.
The noun is countable, definite, and singular:
The extra information (relative clause: ‘you sent me’) specifies
which letter we are talking about.
The noun is countable, definite, and plural:
The context makes it clear.
The noun is uncountable, indefinite, and singular:

I love the wine that they
produce.
We are talking about nature in general.
The noun is uncountable, definite, and singular:
The extra information specifies which wine we are talking
about (‘that they produce’).

Your attention, please!

Naturally some uses of English articles are idiomatic: the questions above don’t apply to
them. There are 2 types of nouns that require your special attention.
1. Geographic names:
 Continents, countries, towns, streets, mountains and buildings are preceded
by the zero article.
For example: live in Italy, Europe, Milan, Wall Street, Mount Everest, Milan Airport
 Plural countries and mountains, as well as seas, rivers, deserts, and
geographic regions are preceded by ‘the’.
For example: the Netherlands, the United States, the Alps, the Black Sea,
the Tiber, the Sahara, the Middle East

2. Idiomatic uses:
 Home / town: No article precedes ‘home’ unless you add extra information
(for example an adjective) or ‘town’ when it refers to your own town.
For example:
Nancy is going home.
I am in town now – I am shopping.
This is a nice home you have! (did you notice the adjective?)

 Bed / church / court / prison / school / college / university / hospital /

work: No article before those nouns when they refer to an action rather than a
place.
Go to bed = in order to sleep
Go to church = in order to worship or pray
Go to court = in order to defend a client
Go to prison = in order to serve a sentence
Go to school = in order to learn
Go to college/university = in order to get a degree
Go to hospital = in order to be treated
Go to work = in order to work
So logically the people who ‘go to prison’ are prisoners, those who ‘go to school’ are
children, and those who ‘go to hospital’ are patients.

However, if you refer to the building itself, you should use the article ‘the’.
For example:
Parents are going to the school to meet the teachers.
Nancy is going to the church to see the beautiful windows.
The lawyer will go to the prison to see his client.

Note: Work has a number of different meanings in the dictionary, but the most common
use of it as a noun, meaning a profession or a job as used in the examples above. When
we are talking about ‘work’ as a literary or artistic composition – a novel, a play, a
symphony, a sculpture, etc. – then it’s countable.

Your turn now…

Now that you have learnt the 2 simple questions and you know which article to use – what’s
missing? Practice!

Only practice can make choosing the right article effortless. Only practice will make it
automatic.

Ask your English teacher for some exercises on articles or search online – there are lots of
good grammar websites. To get started, there are some exercises here and here.

Has this explanation been helpful? Please let me know in the comments below: