Look at these examples to see how articles are used.
She's a doctor.
I need an umbrella.
Have you heard the news?
I don't like spiders.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Here are some of the most important things to know about using articles.
Jobs
When we say what people's jobs are, we usually use a/an.
He's an architect.
She's a scientist.
My grandmother was a teacher.
Singular nouns
Singular, countable nouns always have an article – a/an or the (or another determiner – my, your, this, that, etc.).
We use a/an – the indefinite article – when we talk about something for the first time, or something that is part of a group or type.
I saw a good film yesterday.
Do you want a drink?
We use a when the word that follows it begins with a consonant sound. We use an when it's followed by a vowel sound. This makes pronunciation easier.
She has a university degree.
It took me an hour to get home.
We use the – the definite article – when the listener already knows which thing we are talking about because it was mentioned before or because there's only one of them.
I'm going to take the dog for a walk.
Have you seen the car key?
They go to the school next to the bridge.
Things in general
When we talk about things in general, we normally use a plural or uncountable noun with no article.
Birds eat worms.
Water freezes at 0°C.
Children need a lot of sleep.
Particular groups of things
When we talk about a particular group of things, we use the.
We went to the zoo and saw the kangaroos. (These are the particular kangaroos in that zoo – not kangaroos in general.)
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello jeje
As the explanation says, we use 'a' when the word that follows it begins with a consonant sound. 'university' begins with the /j/ sound -- you can hear it on this dictionary page.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Aguirre79,
The correct answer to that question is 'The', not no article. I'm not sure why you think no article is correct.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Gelebishokarma
'teachers' refers to more than one teacher (in the first sentence, all the teachers in the school) and 'teacher' refers to just one teacher (in the second sentence, Philip).
'dogs' refers to the animal in general, that is, all dogs. He doesn't like any dog anywhere because one dog bit him when he was a child. But the man going on the walk is going with just one dog, not all dogs.
Does that make sense?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bhavna,
When we use certain title to describe positions which can be attained and we use certain verbs (be, become, be named, be made), we often do not use the definite article. Thus we say:
Note that while sometimes these words are not capitalised in this context, it is more usual to capitalise them:
You can read a discussion of the topic here:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/239193/why-there-is-no-article-before-words-like-queen-and-king
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/88455/king-of-or-the-king-of
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Filip2122,
'Music' is an uncountable noun, so we do not use the article 'a' before it. The correct sentence is I like listening to music.
You can read more about uncountable nouns here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/uncount-nouns
You can read about countable nouns here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/count-nouns
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team