by Liz Walter
Many learners of English have problems with articles (the words a, an and the), especially when they don’t exist in their own language. This blog looks at some of the basic rules.
The number one rule is this: if a word is countable (e.g. one book, two books), you must always use an article (or my, his, etc.):
This is true even if there are adjectives before the noun:
He drives an old car. √
He drives old car.
Never use a or an with a word that is plural (e.g. books, trees) or uncountable (e.g. water, advice):
I asked her for advice. √
I asked her for an advice.
Note that we use a in front of words that start with a consonant sound (a horse, a carrot) and an in front of words with a vowel sound (an apple, an elephant).
The next most important thing to understand is the difference between a/an and the. Basically, we use a/an when we don’t need to say which thing we are talking about. We use the to talk about a specific thing:
I caught a train to London. (it doesn’t matter which train)
The train was late. (that particular train was late)
We often use a when we mention something for the first time, and then change to the when it is clear which thing we are talking about:
He was talking to a man. The man was laughing.
She gave him a present. The present was very expensive.
We also use the when it is obvious which thing we are talking about or when there is only one of something:
Could you shut the door, please?
I cleaned the bathroom this morning.
He travelled around the world.
The sun is hot today.
If you stick to the rules above, you will be correct in almost all cases. However, there are a few exceptions, and the following are the most useful ones to learn:
We don’t use a/an before the names of meals:
We had lunch at noon.
We don’t use a/an before words like school, prison, or college when we are talking about them in a general way:
I hope to go to college.
He spent three years in prison.
With the word ‘hospital’, there is a difference between British and American English:
My brother’s in hospital (UK) / in the hospital (US).
We use the before the names of shops or places where we go for services when they are the ones we usually go to:
I need to go to the supermarket.
She went to the doctor’s.
hi, I just wondering can any help me with my question, is give me an advice is correct or give me advice
Liz WalterIt’s give me advice. Advice is an uncountable noun in English. If you aren’t sure, use the dictionary on this site – nouns with [U] are uncountable and nouns with [C] are countable.
Give me advice is correct Resham SkGive me “the advice “as well as Give me “advice” is correct because “the advice “means to denots the idea of specific or clear advice about which speaker is already familiar with that “advice ” is already implied to the doer or speaker before time and the speaker is wanting that advice one more . Thanks .. I hop you got it.
Nipun MahjanBoth are incorrect, when we use certain uncountable words like advice, we use the phrase -‘a piece of’. Hence it would be “Give me a piece of advice”. I hope that helps.
Cheers, Nipun
P.S. sorry for being too late.
Sachin Bedi, I’m afraid your comment isn’t correct. You can say ‘advise me’ but ‘advice’ is always a noun.
give me advice would be the correct one. What do you need to know? You can use a piece of advice or some advice. naseeras it was said not to use articles for uncountable words or things like you said advice there are lot’s of advice’s right.
Thaboh Give an advice is a correct one Advice is uncountable so, the correcta One is give me advice arfathgive me advice, is right
as advice is uncountable i.e one advice, two advice (are incorrect), a piece of advice , a pair of advice (are correct)
I want to ask u sth too ..is
I love all kinds of dogs or I love all the kinds of dogs is correct?
(Or none of them xD)
You can say I want your advice, Give me some advice, I don’t need any advice or thanks for the advice.
ADVISE is a verb. ADVICE is an uncountable noun. The only time that you would use ‘the’ is with a superlative; i.e. That is the best advice I’ve ever gotten. Good luck
Advice is uncountable so we cannot use a/an before that, but it can be used with “some” or ” a piece of”, for example, one can say, Please give me some advice or I gave him a piece of advice.
it’s Give me an advice. Kirti PandeySince advice is uncountable we never use a/an but for the sentence to sound clear you can add ‘some advice’ or ‘a piece of advice’
moe gyi Give me a piece of advice. it isAs what mentioned, uncountable nouns such as advice should be without an article, on the other hand, you can put an article if you mean to say ” a piece of advice” or a couple of advice”, make sense?
muskan bijaya hellow if their is that the ramkrishna is the author of harry potter or it will be an author Waleed It is good and clear rules.A nice primer on article usage, admittedly.
The only thing that caught my eye (conspicuous by its absence, actually), was the common exception of utilizing an article with a meal, ESPECIALLY when there’s an adjective in front of it….
“I ate A quick lunch today, since I was running behind schedule. ”
“Working overtime usually means A late dinner for me and my co-workers. “
Dear Liz,
Thank you for your useful information.
I have a question: what is difference between “a” and “one”, for example: “There is a cat” and “There is one cat”.
Pls help to explain this situation.
Dear Liz Thank you for your information.
Please help to explain following question: What is difference between “a” and “one” in these example:
– There is a cat.
– There is one cat. Both sentences are the same meaning or not? Thank you in advance.
the two sentences are correct. but the difference is this. when u say There is one cat, U want to emphasize on the number of cat.But in the other sentence,there is not any emphasis
“There is a cat” means to me that there is an undefined cat around and “there is one cat” means that there is only one cat around.
Mamoun thanks it’s veryYou use the before a plural when you have mentioned the things before or if it is clear which ones you are referring to, exactly the same as for singular nouns. For instance: She gave me some apples. The apples were juicy.
Rodrigo Dear Liz Walter, thank you very for your answer, it made it clear. Kurtis Walker I miss him can i see himThank you very much for this post. I have a question regarding more difficult examples (from scientific literature) where abstract terms are frequently used. A few quotes: “A fourth implicit prediction of the amyloid hypothesis
(which we did not make at first) is that (1) tangle formation is a
closer biological event to (2) neuronal cell death. This has been
demonstrated by the (3) identification of (4) MAPT mutations in
FTDP17-T (Hutton et al. 1998; Poorkaj et al. 1998) and the
modeling of tangle-associated cell death in transgenic mice
(Lewis et al. 2000). Thus the finding of MAPT mutations in
(5) tangle-only disease is completely consistent with the amyloid
hypothesis (Hardy et al. 1998).” I put a few numbers in brackets, which indicate points of my doubts. So, tangle formation is a very specific process, why there is no THE article in front of it (1), the same holds true for (2) and (4). And yet in (3) identification gets THE. While tangle-only disease (5) is not really specified (there are multiple) but here it did not get A. I will be very grateful if someone helps me to solve this puzzle.
Thank you.
1, 2 and 5 have no articles because they are uncountable and don’t refer to a specific instance. In this context, the author is talking about the phenomenon of tangle formation, not one specific instance of it. 4 has no article because it is plural. 3 is something I didn’t talk about in my blog, but is a common structure with nouns connected with actions followed by ‘of’: the x of something. It is demonstrated again in your text: the modeling of of …
