Types of Articles of parts of speech in English grammar

Articles (Parts of Speech)


Articles are very important in parts of speech. It is used before noun to show that it is specific or not.

Types of articles:

There are two types of articles
  1. The definite article is "the"
  2. The indefinite article is "a & an

The definite article "The"


It is used when someone talks about a specific thing that both the listener and the speaker know.

Examples of definite article


  1. The cycle over there is slow.
  2. The president of China is addressing today. 

When we talk about something or someone for the first time we use indefinite article a / an, the next time when we repeat that thing we use the definite article the.

  1. I visit a zoo. The zoo was quite old and beautiful.
  2. I ate a Chinese dish in a restaurant. The dish was very tasty. 

Note:- No article

We cannot use an article with countries, districts, states, provinces, mountains and lakes.

But we can use an article when the country is a collection of states such as “The United States”. 
The United Arab Emirates.

Examples of No Articles


  1. They live in England.
  2. She climbed K2.
  3. She saw mountains of different areas.

Normally we do not use an article with uncountable nouns and plurals talking about things.
  1. She reads stories.
  2. They like flowers.
  3. He ate sandwich in the afternoon.
  4. She did not like music. 

The indefinite articles a/an


We use this article with the things or people which are not specify:

  1. They met a colleague.
  2. She teaches in a school in Washington. 
We use an article “a” before a consonant sound: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y and z.

For example
  1. a flower.
  2. a parrot.
  3. a school.
  4. a driver.
  5. a quill.

We use an article an” before a vowel sound, a, e, i, o and u.

For example

  1. an apple
  2. an elephant
  3. an octopus
  4. an igloo
  5. an umbrella

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