Learning English Blog
"A," "An," and "The"
by Jason Catizone on 07/05/24
We use them before singular nouns:
I saw a cat. (Not: I saw cat.)
We helped the dog. (Meaning, we helped one particular dog.)
She ate an orange. (Not: She ate orange.)
From the third example, you can see that we use "an" when the following word begins with a vowel sound. So, an egg, an ice cream cone, an ostrich, an umbrella. We do this to smooth the pronunciation because "a apple" sounds a bit uncomfortable to say; "an apple" flows much better.
We usually don't use "a," "an," or "the" before singular nouns which speak of emotions or concepts:
He has joy! (Not: He has a joy!)
They love philosophy. (Not: They love a philosophy.)
This little blog obviously does not address every reason why we do or don't say "a," "an," or "the," but these are some basics.
I hope they help you!
