A Short Article on Articles      The Indefinite Article      The Definite Article      The Zero Article

A Short Article on Articles

For better or for worse, English is blessed with articles. This causes a considerable amount of confusion for speakers of most of the world's other languages, who seem to get on rather well without them. The good news is that English began dropping the complex case systems and grammatical genders still prevalent in other European languages a very long time ago. Now we are left with just two forms of the indefinite article (a & an) and one form of the definite article (the). Perhaps more than anything it is the transition from being a language with synthetic structure to one which is more analytic that has helped gain English the kind of unrivalled worldwide acceptance it enjoys today. 

Although greatly simplified, English article usage still poses a number of challenges to speakers of other European languages. Let's compare the German sentence "Da er Botaniker ist, liebt er die Natur" with the corresponding English one "Being a botanist, he is fond of nature". You'll see that English puts an indefinite article in front of a profession but German doesn't. Conversely, English manages without articles in front of abstract nouns like nature, where German needs a definite article. 

Even between British and American usage one finds subtle differences in nuance or emphasis. For example, Americans usually say someone is in the hospital, much as they could be at the bank or in the park. To the British this sounds like there is only one hospital in town or that the American is thinking of one hospital in particular that he or she patronizes. The Brits say an ailing person is in hospital, just as they would say a child is at school or a criminal is in prison. This is because they are thinking more of the primary activities that take place within those institutions rather than the buildings in which they are housed. If, however, you are merely visiting one of these places, you are at the hospital, at the school or at the prison — both British and Americans agree here that what we have in mind is the building itself.

These few examples serve to illustrate that there is more to articles than at first meets the eye. From whatever perspective you are viewing this page, we hope you'll discover that articles are actually precision tools that greatly contribute to the unique accuracy of expression afforded by the English language. Most article usage does in fact have a reasonably logical explanation. If this can be properly grasped then non-native English can be made a lot less conspicuous and many misunderstandings avoided. 

a, an     The Indefinite Article

Conversely, an is put in front of any word that begins with a pure vowel sound or a mute 'h'.

• Our town has a theatre, a university,
  a large park and a conference hall. 
• Many Chinese still believe an Englishman
  always carries an umbrella. 
• It's an old custom.
  It's a strange old custom.

• The coastguard received an SOS.
• He spent an hour standing in line. 

• I have two cars: a Ford and an Audi.
  The Ford is white and the Audi is silver.

• She is an architect and he is a doctor.

• He earns $200 a day. 
• She swims twice a week. 
• He drove at 60 miles an hour.

• She has a little money and a few friends,
  so she'll probably get by.

Compare:

• She has little money and few friends,
  so I doubt if she'll get by.

the     The Definite Article

• I have two cars: a Ford and an Audi.
  The Ford is white and the Audi is silver.

• Last week a fighter plane crashed into a field
  but the pilot managed to eject safely.
• Yesterday I spent the afternoon at home. 
  I put my clothes into the washing machine and went outside to sit in the garden.

• The sun, the moon, the sea, the sky, the Arctic Circle, the environment, the capital, the air, the ground, etc. 

Irregularity: Spoken American English drops the in dates.

• It was the worst day of my life! 
• The captain was the first person to leave
  the burning tanker.

• AmE June twenty-first. 
• BrE  June the twenty-first.
       The twenty-first (day) of June.

• The computer has changed our lives.
• It is left up to the consumer to decide
  which one to buy.
• We all have a responsibility to look after
  the old and infirm.
• The whale is the largest mammal.

• The Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Amazon,
  the West Indies, the Rockies, the Sahara, 
  the Netherlands, the Far East, etc.

In the case of official job titles, the is usually dropped if there is only one such incumbent at any given time.

• It is unlikely the Queen of Denmark has 
  ever swum in the Bay of Bengal.

• Margrethe II is (the) Queen of Denmark.
• Donald was elected chairman of the board.

• The Empire State Building, the English Channel, the White House, the Festival Hall, the Rolling Stones, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the British Museum, etc.

• The Hilton Hotel, the Savoy, the Sheraton

• The Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Daily Mail

Acronyms (initials read as whole words) are treated in the same way as regular names (proper nouns) and so do not require any article. If you are uncertain, please monitor usage in the media or consult a dictionary.

• The Commonwealth, the Fed, the EU, the WHO, the BBC, the FDA, the IAEA, etc.

Compare:

• OPEC, NATO, ICANN, etc.

• The U.S. dollar has risen against the yen but fallen against the euro. 

• I'm the David Appleyard that lives in Japan.

• Richard Clayderman plays the piano.

• She was hit on the head by a snowball
  (= a snowball hit her head). 
• Joe grabbed the youth by the collar
  (= Joe grabbed the youth's collar).

• I go to the cinema/movies, the theatre, 
  the circus, the ballet and the opera. 
• In the daytime I listen to the radio, but in the evenings I like to watch television.

—     The Zero Article

• Love is all you need. 
• Crime is a growing problem in the inner cities.

• Harrods, Macys, McDonald's, Lloyds Bank, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Kennedy Airport, Waterloo Station, Cambridge University, etc.

• Cisco Systems, Microsoft, CBS, EMI, Hitachi, Lufthansa, etc

• George Osborne is (the) Chancellor of
  the Exchequer.

Compare: 

• George Osborne is a cabinet minister.

• Queen's Road, Oxford Street, Central Park, Times Square, Tower Bridge, etc.

• While in New Zealand I climbed Mount Cook.

• Roger had breakfast in his hotel room.

Compare:

• I attended a dinner at the Rotary Club.

• Anna Kournikova plays tennis to keep in shape.

If, however, they are used for any other purposes,
the is required.

• She stayed in bed on Sunday instead of
  going to church. 
• The dissatisfied customer threatened to
  take him to court. 
• The dissident was released from prison. 
• After graduating from high school he went
  to university. 

Compare: 

• She sat on the bed while she changed her socks.
• He entered the church to photograph its interior. 
• The decorators forgot a ladder in the prison and the place was empty when they came back for it.

If, however, you start talking about somewhere concrete or some place in particular, then the definite article the is required.

• My uncle first went to sea at the age of 15. He used to spend months at sea. 
• I go to work every day. I was at work yesterday. 
• Jack's been out of work for almost a year.
• What's on in town (= my local town) this weekend? 
• Julie's out of town (= the town she lives in) until Thursday. 
• This government has been in office for about a year now. The opposition parties would dearly love to vote them out of office.

Compare: 

• I went to the sea/seaside to swim. 
  I stayed by the sea/seaside all day. 
• What's on in the town (= a particular town, not necessarily my own) this weekend?
• How do I get out of the town? 
• Sally spent all day in the office (= her workplace). She didn't get out of the office much before 7 o'clock.

• Carol saw her brother on television.

Compare: 

• She had an indoor antenna on the television.

• The students have just read section C. 
• The Chicago train is about to depart
  from track 5. 
• Her flight leaves from gate 32. 
• He fell asleep on page 816 of 
  "War and Peace". 
• She is staying in room 689. 

Even if an article exists in the original title, as in 
J.R.R. Tolkien's  'The Lord of the Rings', people tend to omit this when making reference to it in everyday speech or writing.

• "Journey into Hell" sounds even more exciting than "The Journey into Hell".

• "Have you read 'Lord of the Rings'?"

• "Iraqi Head Seeks Arms"
• "Stolen Painting Found by Tree"
• "Police Confirm Shotgun Attack
  on Bullet Train"