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Articles are a / an / the.
They are used in front of nouns. A noun can be singular (one) or plural (more than one).
A / an
These are called ‘indefinite articles’. They are used only with singular nouns to mean one out of several.
For example:
a teacher / an accountant
We use a before a noun that starts with a consonant.
For example:
a waiter
Generally, we use an before a noun that starts with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u).
For example:
an optician
There are exceptions based on pronunciation for words that start with the letter u but these are not included here.
The
This is called the ‘definite article’. It can be used before singular or plural nouns to talk about something specific.
We say the teacher (singular) to refer to a specific teacher.
For example:
The teacher who taught me
We say the teachers (plural) to refer to a specific group of teachers.
For example:
The teachers who worked in my school