How to use English Articles: THE, AN, A (& NO Article)

Hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

This lesson will help you to  use English articles correctly.

In my last lesson we talked  about indefinite articles and  

I will link to that one at the end  of this lesson in case you missed it.

But today I'm going to teach you  how to use the definite article  

the and when you should use no article at all.

Many of my students make mistakes with  articles especially when they speak. 

Are you one of them?

They're tricky little buggers!

This lesson is definitely one to watch, and  I've also created you a worksheet that you can  

download and help you practise and review  everything that we learn in this lesson.

Plus my lesson from last week  about the indefinite article.

I highly recommend you grab it and you use it to  review and to practice what we go through today.

It includes all of the tricky rules that we talk  about in this lesson with examples but it also  

has a little quiz and some practice questions  to help you put what you learn into practice.

Let's dive into the lesson.

How articles are used in your  native language will have a big  

impact on the types of mistakes that  you make with articles in English.

So it's really important that you try not to  directly translate in your head with articles.

You need to learn the way that  we use articles in English  

and that is exactly what we're here to do today.

The definite article in English is the.

Last week we learned that the indefinite  article a or an can be used with singular nouns,

but this one, can be used  with most types of nouns.

We can use it with singular nouns,  the woman is sitting over there.

We can use it with countable nouns,  the people in the queue are frustrated  

and uncountable nouns the  information she gave me was false.

Cool huh!

Before we get stuck into the rules,  let's talk about pronunciation,  

because there are actually two different  ways to pronounce this word in English.

Both start with the consonant sound

So the position of your tongue is really  important. Make sure it's coming through.

It's a voiced sound so you should get  the tickle on your tongue, that vibration  

when you make this sound. So the first way  to pronounce it is the with a schwa sound,

and the second way to pronounce it is the the.

But when do we use each sound?

We use the before nouns that start with a  consonant sound: the car, the unit, the bookshelf.

The u in unit is a consonant sound at the start.  It's pronounced /'ju:nit/. Unit. The unit.

I want you to have a practice with me:  the, the car, the unit, the bookshelf.

So now, can you guess when we use the?

Before nouns that begin with  a vowel sound. You're right!

So now that you know, it's easy to remember  this, the relates to a longer vowel sound.

The apple, the elephant, the orange, the hour.

Yes, we have the h consonant  sound. That is silent. So the first  

sound that we hear in the  word hour is a vowel sound.

So we say the hour

Now I want you to try it with me: the, the  apple, the elephant, the orange, the hour.

Now there is something else that happens here  in connected speech when native English speakers  

use the definite article  followed by a vowel sound.

I want to know if you can hear it. Listen  carefully, there is an extra sound:  

the apple, the elephant, the orange, the hour.

In order to link words together, speak with a  natural flow and speak quickly, native speakers  

will add a little /j/ sound between those vowel  sounds, and I've got a whole lesson about it.

You can get to it up here, after this lesson.

So you'll hear it between those vowels.  The apple. yapple. The apple. Right?

It's very soft, but that little  extra sound can potentially  

mean that you misunderstand or you don't quite  hear a word as you expect it to in English.

So it's worth keeping that in mind.

Okay pronunciation: tick!

Now let's talk about when you  should use the definite article.

Rule number one: use the with nouns  that have already been mentioned before.

I talked about this a little in my last  lesson about the indefinite article. 

When we mention a noun for the very first  time we use a or an, but after we mention it  

for the first time, we can use the because  it's clear which noun we're talking about.

I saw a woman on the tram this morning. The  woman was wearing a red coat and a blue scarf.

So you can see that the noun woman  is mentioned twice here, but we use a  

first because we're mentioning  the woman for the first time.

We can use the so that it's clear  which woman we're talking about.

Okay, but how about this noun here? hmm

Didn't I just say that we use a and an to mention something for the first time?

I did. But this brings us to Rule Number 2.

We use the to be specific. When I say, the  tram, I'm talking about a specific tram.

I'm talking about the 8am tram  that I take to work every morning.  

I'm talking about the tram that I was on.  I'm not talking about any random tram.

When I say, the boss is giving me a hard time,  

I'm talking about a specific boss.  My boss. The boss that I work for.

So when I say, the boss is giving me a hard time,  

I'm assuming that you, the listener or the  reader, you know which boss I'm talking about.

Either because it's obvious or because  it wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

It wouldn't make much sense if I was  talking about your boss or just any boss  

in another company. Why would  they be giving me a hard time?

You can assume that I'm going to be talking  about the boss that I work for. My boss.

Let's look at a few more examples.

We can say a museum, any museum compared  to the British Museum. A specific museum.

We can say a hotel and mean any hotel, compared  to the Ritz Hotel. Which is a specific hotel.

We can apply the same logic to  people too. A pilot, means any pilot,  

compared to the specific pilot who is  flying the plane that I'm talking about.

We can say an engineer,  who's working on the project.  

Any engineer. He's one of many. There are  many engineers, compared to the lead engineer.

There's only one of them. The  lead engineer is specific. 

You get the idea right?

We can also use the to talk  about specific times of day. 

The morning, during the afternoon and the evening.

But you need to watch out because  for whatever reason in English we say  

at night. We don't say at the night.

Morning, evening, night, this can kind of get a  little tricky with articles, with prepositions.

There are often some pretty crazy rules in  English around how to use these words accurately.

I did want to give a little shout out to my  prepositions course. It is a complete package of  

amazing lessons about English prepositions.

Lots of practice, lots of imitation practice  included as well so that you learn the rules  

but also how to use them in spoken English  naturally and sound like a native speaker.

The link to check out the course and  to try one of the modules for free  

head down to the description  and you'll see it right there.

Rule Number 3: we use the  with unique nouns or titles.

When there's only one of something, the  sun, the moon, the President, the Queen.

Of course there is more than one president in  the world. There's also more than one queen,  

but there is only one President of the United  States. There is only one Queen of England.

So when we're using a noun that can be generic  

or unique. we need to look for the  context of how it's being used.

Actually, names or titles that  are formed with this same pattern:  

the something of something, they all refer  to something that is specific or unique.

The CEO of my company. The Prime Minister  of India. The capital of Australia.

All of these nouns are unique.  There's only one capital city  

in my country. There's only  one Prime Minister in India.

So using the definite article in this situation  

helps us to define the noun  that we're talking about.

Alright, this next one is  one that I hear my students  

messing up quite a bit so I'm  gonna walk you through it slowly.

Rule Number 4 is use the  with superlative adjectives.

When we use a superlative adjective to describe  a noun, that noun instantly becomes unique.

Only one thing can be the biggest, or  the tallest, or the best and I want to  

give you an example taking a look at our  planet Earth within the solar system.

Earth is big. It's bigger than Venus,  

but both Neptune and Uranus are bigger  than Earth. Which planet is the biggest?

Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system.  

Only one planet can be the biggest, or the  smallest, or the nicest, or the furthest.

When we compare nouns in this way, remember  that by using the superlative adjective,  

your noun instantly becomes unique.

There is only one and therefore  that means you need to use the.

Okay this is where things get a little dicey.

Sometimes, the trickiest part about using  articles is knowing when not to use one.

This part of the lesson is  definitely the hardest part  

to teach because there are some exceptions  that we need to talk about. But here goes

Rule Number 5: don't use an article,  any article, in general statements.

Let's have a look at some general statements  and I'll show you just what I mean.

Good friends always listen. Sloths  are lazy animals. Fruit is sweet.

So these are all general statements. I'm talking  

generally about the characteristics  of good friends, sloths and fruit.

Did you notice that all of these nouns  are either plural or they're uncountable  

and we do this to talk generally about something.

But we can still use an article  to make general statements.

We can say a good friend always listens.  Notice that friend is now no longer plural  

but what I mean here is that every  individual good friend listens.

That's what any one good friend does.  So this statement is still general,  

it's just two different ways  of saying the same thing.

On the other hand, if I change this sentence to:  

the fruit is sweet, well then I'm  talking about some specific fruit.

Maybe it's the fruit on the table, or  the fruit in the bowl, or the fruit that  

I bought from the market and fruit in this  context refers to a plural uncountable noun.

It refers to all of the  fruit in the bowl. The apple,  

the banana, the strawberries, the  pineapple, they are all sweet.

So by adding the article, the meaning  changes from being general to being specific.

Fruit in general is sweet in summer. The  fruit that we ate yesterday was very sweet.

Don't use an article with these proper nouns.

Proper nouns are nouns that name a specific  place or person or organisation. In English,  

they are always written with a capital  letter, because they're very important.

In general, we don't use articles with proper  nouns... uh well if only it was that simple.

This one is probably the trickiest rule  in this lesson. So I want you to focus.  

I want you to come back here.  Focus on what I'm talking about,

and because this section is so tricky, I've  also made you a little cheat sheet with  

different types of nouns that don't use articles,

particularly some of the exceptions and I have  linked to that down in the description below.

Don't use the with names of people. I saw the  Frances the other day. No. However, you can  

use the when you're talking about a group of  people who have the same name like a family.

Then we would use the and the  plural form of that family name.  

I bumped into the Smiths the other day.

So when I say the Smiths, I mean more than  

one member of the Smith  family. They were all together.

We also use the to refer to a  group of people from the same  

country, like: the Japanese are  punctual, the Italians are passionate.

Don't use the with place names  

India, Turkey and Malaysia are all part of  Asia. We don't say the India or the Asia.

This is true for most countries and continents,  but there are a few important exceptions.

So I recommend that you learn the rule but  

then you learn the exceptions  because there are just a few.

Firstly, countries that use kingdom,  republic or union in their name  

use the. The United Kingdom, The  Republic of Congo, The European Union.

Country names that are plural also  use the. The Netherlands, The United  

States of America, and some  countries that are made up of  

multiple islands like: the Philippines  or the West Indies. They all use the.

Don't use an article with streets or parks or  lakes when you're specifically naming them.

We're staying at Federation Square on Flinders  Street. Albert Park is just a few minutes away.

This rule can sometimes trip people  

up because when we reference a public place  without using its name, we can use the.

You know, the park across the road. What a view!  

The lake looks stunning at sunset. But  when we name that park or that lake  

we don't use the article. Victoria Park is across  the road. Lake Como looks lovely at sunset.

Ooh last tip! We have just learned not to use the  

with country names towns and cities but there  is a different rule for geographical nouns.

Rule Number 7 is: use the definite  article with these geographical nouns.

With mountain ranges, like the Himalayas or the  Alps these names refer to a group of mountains  

right however single mountains like Mount Everest  or Mount Fuji are used without an article.

A single mountain, no article.  Groups of mountains, use the.

Let's take a look at some other examples of  geographical nouns. Canals, rivers, seas,  

oceans, valleys and deserts.

These nouns are good ones to learn together in  chunks because the rules are a little confusing,  

trying to understand them  could send you a little crazy.

But learning the noun together with the  article that it's used with is going to help.

It's going to stop you from thinking and  asking the question and just more naturally  

know and remember, oh that's right,  it's not Himalayas, it's The Himalayas.

Here's one final mistake that I often hear  my students making with the definite article.

He hurt the foot yesterday. Do you sometimes make this mistake too?

In English, we use possessive determiners.  In this context we use my, your, his,  

hers, ours, theirs with body parts.

He hurt his foot yesterday. Not he hurt the foot.  

She washes her hands often  not she washes the hands.

I bumped my head not I bumped the head.

Well done you made it all the way  through to the end of the lesson.  

You should be feeling like an article pro now!

There are two little things. Make sure  you grab that workbook that I've created  

for you. It's got all of these tricky rules.

It's a little bit like a cheat sheet  

that helps you to know when to use an  article, when not to use an article,

plus there's some practice activities  and a little quiz to help you  

lock all of the knowledge  everything that you learned  

into your memory so that you can draw  on it and use it when you need to.

If you want to put your new skills to the  test, I've got a little homework task for you.

I want you to pause the video,  tell me about your hometown  

down in the comments. Describe  it with some geographical nouns.

Tell me something that is generally  true about the people who live there  

and something that is specific  about your upbringing or your family

and if while you're writing you  need to go back and review one of  

the rules that we went through, use  the chapters in this video to help  

you go back, skip back to that section  and find the answer that you need.

That is exactly why I put those chapters there,  

so it's easy for you to come back to  and use my lessons to help all the time.

If you've got a question about this  lesson or you just want to say hello  

drop me a comment down below this video  and thank you so much for watching.

Check out these lessons next. See you in there!