The article

ARTICLE 

The demonstrative Adjectives a, an, the are called Articles. As they are used in almost every sentence, they may not be considered a separate part of speech. It is more correct to class them as adjectives: 

There are two kinds of articles a or an and the. 

A and An are called Indefinite Article because they do not refer to a particular person or thing Their function is not to define but to generalize a thing. They are used before the things that we can count. 

The Indefinite Article is used before singular countable nouns; as 

A pen, an egg, a boy, a man, an umbrella. 

The is called the Definite Article because it defines some particular person or thing. 

The Definite Article is used before singular countable nouns, plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns; as 

The chair, the chairs, the sugar, the milk. 

Use of the indefinite Article 

1. The indefinite article 'a' is used before a singular word beginning with a consonant except  words beginning with silent `h' e.g. honest, honourable etc. a is also used before a word beginning with a vowel but having a consonant sound; as  

A European, a university, a utensil, a one sided match, a one eyed man, etc. 

2. The indefinite Article "a " is used to change an abstract noun into a common noun; as 

You did me a favour. 

Halen is a beauty. 

3. The Indefinite Article "a" is used before few, little, good, great many, great deal, good deal, as_

A good many books, a great deal of time, a little milk, etc. 

4. The Indefinite article "a" is used before plural nouns preceded by the words dozen, hundred, thousand, etc; as 

A Hundred rupees, a dozen pens, a thousand soldiers. 

5. The indefinite Article "a" is also used before fractional terms; as 

He got a fifth part of the property. 

6. "An" is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound or a consonant having a vowel sound, as 

An orange, an ass, an apple, an officer, an MA, an honourable man, etc. 

7. An is also used before a word beginning with 'h' if the second syllable is stressed; as_

An historical monument, an heroic deed, an hotel, etc. 

Use of the Definite Article 

The definite Article the is used. 

1. to denote a particular person, place or thing, or one already mentioned or under discussion; as_

The book is interesting. 

We have already visited the garden. 

The boy made a noise. 

2. to make a singular noun represent a whole class; as 

The cow is a useful animal. 

The eagle is a bird of prey. 

The lion is the king of beasts. 

The Jasmine is the loveliest of all flowers. 

The is also used before: 

1. A proper Noun when qualified by an adjective phrase. 

The Pakistan of today is a nuclear power.

2. The names of the sacred books; as 

The Quran, The Bible, etc. 

3. The names of nations; as_ 

The Pakistanis, The English, The Japanese, etc. 

4. The names of newspapers. 

The Dawn, The Naw-i-waqt, The Nation, etc.

5. The names of the rivers, canals, seas, oceans, bays, etc. 

The Ravi, The Suez Canal, The Arabian Sea, The Indian Ocean, The Bay of Bengal. 

6. The names of heavenly bodies; as 

 The sun, The earth, The stars, The moon. 

7. The names of mountain ranges; as 

The Himalayas, The Alps 

8. The names of group of islands. 

The West Indies. 

9. The names of deserts; as_

The Gobi, The Sahara. 

10. The names of provinces; as 

The Punjab, The Sindh. 

11. The titles of honour or rank. 

Akbar the Great, Alexander the Great. 

12. The names of ships. 

The Babar, The Tariq. 

13. With superlatives. 

The hottest month, The darkest cloud, The longest day, etc. 

14. With Adjectives used as plural nouns; as

  The rich, The poor, The blind. 

15. With proper noun used as common noun; as_   

He is the Shakespeare of our time. 

16. Before the comparative degree when selection is intended; as 

She is the wiser of his two daughters. 

17. Before the musical instruments; as   

The guitar, the flute. 

18. Before the organs of the body; as 

The head, the brain, the heart, the liver, etc. 

19. Before the words showing well known historical events; as 

The Khilafat Movement, The French Revolution, The Second World war, 

20. with ordinals, as_   

He is the first player to score the goal. 

The fifth chapter of this book is very difficult.

21. With words indicating number and measure to give the idea of rate; as 

Oranges are sold by the dozen. 

Cloth is sold by the metre. 

22. Before a member of a certain group of people; as 

The salaried man finds life increasingly difficult. 

23. Before plural surname to show 'the... Family', as   

The Syeds, the Rajputs, the Sheikhs, etc.

24. Before the names of some countries using republic, state, kingdom and Netherlands and the Hague. 

25. Before a proper noun when it is qualified by an adjective e.g. 

The Great Akbar. 

26. As an adverb with comparative degree of adjective and adverb e.g. 

The more they get, the merrier they become.

27. Before with-known group of people e.g. the police, the army.

OMISSION OF THE ARTICLE 

The Definite Article 'the' is omitted: 

1. before abstract noun and material nouns i.e  uncountable nouns. as 

Salt is found in abundance in Pakistan. 

Iron Is stronger than silver. 

Beauty needs no ornaments. 

Virtue Is its own reward. 

Note: The is used with uncountable nouns when used in particular sense, as_

The beauty of Helen is fabulous. 

We shall always remember the kindness with which you treated us. 

2. Before plural countable nouns used in general sense; as 

Children love to visit the zoo. 

3. Before proper nouns, namely, names of people, countries, cities, individual mountains, lakes, hills, continents, individual mountains e.g., 

Nasima, Jamal, Pakistan, Lahore, Mount Everest, Murree, Lake Saiful Malook. 

4. Before names of games; as 

We play cricket. 

He plays hockey. 

5. Before names of relations e.g. 

Mother has cooked the food. 

6. Before names of meals (used in a general sense) e.g. 

Dinner is ready. 

But we use "a" when there is adjective before the meal and "the" when we specify e.g. 

The breakfast which we had at Murree was very tasty. 

We had a tasty lunch. 

7. Before school, college, mosque, hospital, market, prison when these places are mentioned for their primary purpose e.g. 

He learnt Urdu at college. 

I go to mosque on every Friday. 

Note: "The" is used with these words when we refer to these places other than three normal activity e.g. 

The college is very near to my house. 

He met his father at the mosque. 

8. Before language e.g. 

We speak Urdu at home. 

French is the language of the French.