Definite Article and Indefinite Article

a/an, the

The determiners a/an and the are called "articles". They are the most common of all determiners. They come at the very beginning of a noun phrase. We divide them into "indefinite" and "definite" like this:

  indefinite
articles		 definite
article
  a/an the
use with singular countable nouns only all nouns
use for a non-specific person or thing (singular) specific people or things (singular or plural)

We use indefinite to mean non-specific. Indefinite is general. We use definite to mean specific. Definite is particular. When we are talking about something in general, we use a or an. When we are talking about something in particular, we use the.

See also:

Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see MILLIONS of stars and ONE moon. So normally we would say:

  • I saw a star last night.
  • I saw the moon last night.

Look at some more examples:

a/an the
I was born in a town.

John had an omelette for lunch.

James Bond ordered a drink.

We want to buy an umbrella.

Have you got a pen?		 The capital of France is Paris.

I have found the book that I lost.

Have you cleaned the car?

There are six eggs in the fridge.

Please switch off the TV when you finish.

Of course, often we can use a/an or the for the same word. It depends on the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

  • We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.)
  • It's raining! Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)
This little story should help you understand the difference between a/an and the:

A man and a woman were walking in Oxford Street. The woman saw a dress that she liked in a shop. She asked the man if he could buy the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop will accept a cheque? I don't have a credit card."

Articles with Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Notice that we use the indefinite article a/an ONLY with singular countable nouns: a dog, an egg, a very big man, an extremely delicious meal

By contrast, we can use the definite article the with ALL nouns: the dog, the eggs, the big men, the music, the food, the red wine

It is sometimes also possible to have no article at all—the so-called ZERO article. This can happen with all nouns (but normally not singular countable nouns): dogs, eggs, hot meals, music, red wine

The following table shows how we usually use articles with countable and uncountable nouns, but see EnglishClub Tip below for more about this.

  a/an the ZERO
countable singular a dog the dog dog
plural a dogs the dogs dogs
uncountable a music the music music
In English, a singular countable noun usually needs an article (or other determiner) in front of it. We cannot say:
  • I saw elephant yesterday.

We need to say something like:

  • I saw an elephant.
  • I saw a pink elephant.
  • I saw the elephant.
  • I saw your elephant.

But see ZERO Article for cases when no article or other determiner is needed.