Articles

Do you know when to use "a / an" and "the", and when to leave them out? If you’re occasionally confused by the use of articles in English, you’re not alone. Here are a few guidelines that should make things a bit easier.

Use “the”…

• before a noun that has been mentioned before, that is known or assumed, or that is very specific: The system failure that occurred in our office yesterday cost us thousands of pounds.

• before certain nouns: the sky, the environment, the world, the country (ländliches Gebiet), the ground, the sea/ocean (das Meer), the cinema
  Our company is very concerned about the environment.

• before certain times of day: the morning, the afternoon, the evening
  I don’t like to attend meetings in the afternoon. (but: at noon, at night)

• before a singular noun that is used generically: The dollar has fallen in value relative to the euro. (But: I’ve got a dollar in my pocket.)

• before a collective noun that looks like an adjective and describes a group of people: The unemployed need our assistance. (but: Unemployed people need our assistance.)

• before place names containing the words “state(s), kingdom, republic, union” and before the names of rivers: We do a lot of business with the Czech Republic/the United Kingdom.
  Our new London offices look out over the Thames.
  

Use “a / an”...*

• before nouns that introduce a specific person or thing that has not been mentioned before: We had a system failure at the office yesterday.

• before professions: I’m a systems engineer/a doctor/an architect.
  

* Remember: use a before consonant sounds, and an before vowel sounds. You would say “a university”, but “an unusual place”, although “university” and “unusual” both start with the vowel “u”; and you would say “an hour”, although “h” is a consonant.