Articles

Articles are small words that go in front of nouns to show whether we mean something general or something specific. English has three articles: the indefinite articles "a" and "an", and the definite article "the"; sometimes we use no article at all, which is called the zero article. We use "a" or "an" with a single countable noun that is not specific, and the choice depends on the SOUND that follows, not the spelling: "a" comes before a consonant sound and "an" before a vowel sound. We use "the" when both the speaker and listener know exactly which thing is meant, or when there is only one of it. We use no article with general plurals, uncountable nouns, most country names, languages, meals, and many fixed expressions. The article we choose can completely change the meaning of a sentence. For example: "I want a book" means any book, while "I want the book" means one particular book we both have in mind.