OR: we can say A student should work hard. Students should work hard. BUT NOT: The student should work hard. You can say that, but it has a different meaning - THE is seen as SPECIFIC, not as generic Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. For mass nouns (U) there is only one generic form . no article; Pass the butter, please vs Butter is expensive nowadays. (specific vs generic) The acting was poor, but I enjoyed the music vs I love music and dancing. (spec vs generic) With postmodifier: the history of China vs Chinese history; animal behaviour vs the behaviour of animals Generic The + adjectives to denote class of people (the young, the unemployed) or abstract quality (the unusual, the sublime); nationality adjectives to refer to the whole people (the Dutch, the Irish, the Welsh) The English language vs English; the Croatian language vs Croatian superlatives of adjectives and adverbs; Britain's oldest man vs the oldest man in Britain ordinal numbers (the second chapter vs chapter 2) the next, the last (express time or space sequence: In the last row; on the next day — the following day) vs next, last (period of time proximate to the one in which statement was made) J shall see him next month. (in April that means in May) the + body parts used instead of possessives (on the forehead, on the back, in the ribs) with mountain ranges, but not with single mountains (the Alps, the Rockies vs Mont Blanc) BUT: the Matterhorn, the Eiger with groups of islands but not with one island (the Philippines vs Coney Island) with groups of lakes but not single lakes (the Great Lakes, the Plitvice Lakes vs Lake Michigan BUT: the Michigan Lake with bodies of water (the Danube, the Thames, the Atlantic Ocean, the Panama Canal) + bays and gulfs with of-phrase deserts, forests, peninsulas (the Sahara, the Black Forest) with points of the compass as names for geographic areas (the South, the Middle East, the Equator) no article with countries/states (Europe, France, Ohio) BUT: if ending with 'republic' or ‘kingdom’: the Dominican Republic, the UK; plural names also have THE: the Netherlands, the US no article with cities and towns (BUT: the Hague, the Bronx, the City, the West End) by-passes and motorways have the: the York by-pass, the M6 motorway university or college when a proper noun follows the of-phrase (the University of Washington vs Oxford University) newspapers (The NY Times, The Guardian, The Observer) — magazines without, but: the Reader's Digest : names of historical periods or events (the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, The Second World War BUT: WW Two) names of bills, acts and other legislative deliberations (the Magna Carta, the Companies Act) official titles (the King, the Foreign Minister, the Secretary of. State) law enforcement bodies, civil and military (the Army, the Navy, the police) branches of the government (the executive branch, the judicial branch) names of institutions, foundations, organizations (the United Nations, the Ford Foundation) names of political parties (the Labour Party, the Conservative Party vs the Labourists, the Conservatives)names of musical instruments, e: ial : a. BUT: the is often left out with ‘guitar Poin en r PlYthe violin, ee re the piano) th ‘guitar’: J play guitar in a band. P - names of planets, but only with the word ‘planet’ (the planet Venus vs Ve - the plural of family names (the Johnsons, the Smiths) eu NO ARTICLE - nouns in general sense (i Members are requested to pay their membershio fee) names ah meals von unless specified (Dinner will be served at 8. vs the dinner for with nouns like bed, church, prison, when we think of the function of the He is in hospital vs We looked for the hospital. They are at sea(inaship) vs — Lookat the sea. He went to bed (to sleep) vs Lie downon the bed. She is at school/college BrE vs We drove past the school. She i sin school/college AE vs _ The college is a new building. hospital, school, college, sea, market, court object/building. Compare: *In AE university and hospital are used with the definite article. ‘man’ and ‘woman’ — no article when used in a collective or abstract sense (Man cannot live by bread alone.) INDEFINITE ARTICLE before a singular C noun when mentioned for the first time or represents no particular person or thing; when we use it, we make no attempt to distinguish one individual member of a class from another it can refer to a class of things as a whole (classifying indefinite article) (e.g. A lion is an animal.) The same pattern (classifying) applies when we talk about a person's job (Wy sister is a doctor) a/an + U nouns may have a sense of: a kind of, the kind of, some; e.g. That restaurant serves a special French wine (a kind of); A knowledge of history is important for all of us. (some knowledge) such, what + singular C nouns informally, 'a' is used with 'most' in the sense of 'very' (She is a most beautiful woman vs She is the most beautiful woman I know.) with most physical ailments or disorders no article is used (heart disease, diabetes, polio) BUT: a headache, a fever, a cold; (the) flu, (the measles), (the) mumps Taken from: Karlovéan, Vjekoslav (2002). An Advanced Learner's English Grammar. Zagreb, Profil InternationalARTICLES ~ no function independent of the noun they precede They contain the following information: __ a) is the noun known/identified b) is it unfamiliar/vague/generalized ©) whether it refers to: ~ an actual example (SPECIFIC ~definite (known to the listener) and indefinite (unfamiliar or vague)) - representative of a whole class of nouns (GENERIC) Tigers are dangerous animals. To be able to assign the correct articles article, 6 questions must be answered. Is the noun: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) generic or specific ‘ definite or indefinite countable or uncountable postmodified or not common or proper part of an idiomatic phrase The relationship of a/an and the is the same as between someone/something vs personal pronoun DEFINITE ARTICLE ‘when identity has been established by an earlier mention of the same noun (second mention) when identity of a noun is established by a postmod. prep. phrase or restrictive relative clause nouns understood to be unique in a particular context. (This is our house. We have the kitchen, the dining-room and the bedroom — HOUSE context; people in a community context - the doctor, the postman; unique on a universal scale: the moon, the sun, the sky...) monuments or places considered unique (The White House is the official home and workplace of the President of the United States of America; the Sphinx, the Kremlin, the Acropolis) *but this principle is not true in many cases, sometimes you can't tell institution shared by the community (He goes to the theatre every month. ; the cinema, the paper(s), the radio) definite article + sg C noun expresses sth general/typical for the whole class of nouns — generic use (The tiger is a wild animal ~ what is emphasized is uniqueness of class as a whole, not of individual animals. Same meaning: Tigers are wild animals (the most common way of making generalizations — use a plural or U noun on its own, without article); A tiger is a wild animal. (here not whole species is meant, but ‘a’ as ‘any’ ~ meaning any representative of the class, a typical representative of the class) Thus we can say: The tiger is in danger of becoming extinct. But not: A tiger is in danger.