Reference Sheet for Facilitators: Articles

Articles (a, an and the) are words used before nouns.

A and an are used when discussing a person or thing that is one of many .

• He works in a bank. (We do not know which bank; there are 23 banks in this particular city.)
• She would like a glass of juice. (It doesn’t matter which glass of juice she gets.)
• She talked to a supervisor. (There are many supervisors, and we are not sure with which supervisor she spoke.)
• He wanted to ask a question. (We are not sure what his question is about.)
• In each of these examples, "a" indicates that we are discussing only one noun.

If these nouns were plural, no article would be used.

• She goes to many banks.
• She would like two glasses of juice.
• She talked to her supervisors.
• He wanted to ask some questions.

The is used when it is clear which thing or person we mean.

• He works at the bank next door. (There is only one bank which is next door.)
• She would like the glass of juice. (There is only one glass of juice available right now.)
• She talked to the supervisor. (She has only one supervisor.)
• He wanted to ask the question. (We know which question he will ask.)

English nouns

In English, there are two different types of nouns, countable and uncountable.
(These are also known as count and noncount nouns.)

Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.

• (a) car, (my) hat, (an) hour, and (the) party become cars, hats, hours, parties