indefinite article: a and an
1. We use the indefinite article, a/an, with count nouns when the hearer/reader does not know exactly which one we are referring to:
Police are searching for a 14 year-old girl.
2. We also use it to show the person or thing is one of a group:
She is a pupil at London Road School.
| Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since Friday. Jenny Brown, a pupil at London Road School, is described as 1.6 metres tall with short blonde hair. She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue jeans and blue shoes. Anyone who has information should contact the local police on 0800349781. |
3. We do not use an indefinite article with plural nouns and uncount nouns:
She was wearing blue shoes. (= plural noun)
She has short blonde hair. (= uncount noun)
|
Police have been searching for a 14 year-old girl who has been missing since Friday.
|
4. We use a/an to say what someone is or what job they do:
My brother is a doctor.
George is a student.
5. We use a/an with a singular noun to say something about all things of that kind:
A man needs friends. (= All men need friends)
A dog likes to eat meat. (= All dogs like to eat meat)
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very good exercise
Respected sir, please tell me why we use the in first sentence and a in second. I went to the sea during my summer holiday. The Severn is a river
have done
That was great job, I always had a problem with artciles.
Can someone tell me what indefinite article is used before an acronym? I need to know which is correct: "an NHS advisor" or "a NHS advisor". The former is correct in speech but the latter is correct as you are actually saying "a National Health...."
Hi marcm48,
When we want to use "a" or "an" before a noun, we have to pay attention to the sound of the next letter not an alphabetic form. When you say "NHS" the first letter is sound like /en.../ like an engineer. But for a word such as "night" the first letter is sound "n..." so we use "a".
Another example is "MP3 player" so we have to use "an MP3 player".
Hope to be helpful.
Hi marcm48, I think that use the same article that would be used to the entire phrase. So, in this case, could to use the article "a", already that the phrase begin with a consonant. If to begin with a vowel you may to use "an".
Respected Sir ,
Why here the word Scout does not refer to a job category. Why this is one of a group?
team
Hello Gawd,
Try looking up 'scout' in the Cambridge Dictionaries Online box at the right-hand side of the page. That should give you the answer!
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
Respected Sir ,
Here in this sentence "She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a blue and white blouse and dark blue jeans and blue shoes" how come the jeans word becomes plural. Because She was wearing a pant maybe that falls in different category. As shoes come in pair so maybe that plural but why this is plural??