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:

• When to Say a or an
• How to Pronounce the

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.