๐ท๏ธ a, an and the
๐ In short
Before a singular noun we usually put a or an, or the. And the good news: English doesn't have masculine and feminine here: the boy, the girl.
๐ The lesson
1 a or an?
We use an before a word starting with a vowel sound, and a before the others. It's the sound that matters, not the letter: an hour, because the h is silent.
- a catCat
- a bananaA banana
- an appleAn apple
- an elephantAn elephant
- an hourAn hour (60 minutes)
2 the: something we know
We use the for something we know or have already mentioned, with both singular and plural.
- I have a dog. The dog is black.I have a dog. The dog is black.
- the sunSun
- the booksThe books
3 No article
With plurals in general we don't use a: I like cats. The same usually goes for names of people and countries: Morocco, Lina.
๐ In a picture
๐ก Watch out!
- a and an mean โoneโ, so we don't use them with plurals: we say a cat and cats.
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 ... orange
2 ... umbrella
3 ... bike
โ The family in Englishโ Plurals in English