THE

The definite article 'the' designates a specific person, place or event as shown below:

Specific things	The book I bought is interesting. Pass me the sugar please.
Hotels, monuments, buildings, museums, cinemas, theatres.	The Ritz, The Tower of London, The Empire State building, The Louvre, The Odeon Cinema, The Royal Theatre
Mountain ranges, rivers, seas, oceans.	The Alps, The Mississippi, The Black Sea, The Pacific Ocean.
Groups of states or islands	The United States of America, The Bahamas.
No article is used in the following cases :
Generalisations	Sugar is sweet. Caviar is expensive.
Streets, squares, etc.	Oxford Street, Time Square
Names of mountains and lakes	Mount Everest, Lake Ontario
Countries (except groups as above)	England, France, Japan, India, etc.
Continents	Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia,

Definite and indefinite articles

What is an article?

Basically, articles are either definite or indefinite. They combine to a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun.

• The definite article is the.
• The indefinite article is a / an.

The indefinite article a or an:

The article a / an is used when we don't specify the things or people we are talking about:

• I met a friend.
• I work in a factory in New York.
• I borrowed a pencil from a passenger sitting next to me.

The indefinite article a is used before a consonant sound:

• a dog.
• a pilot
• a teacher.
• a university

NOTE:
Although 'university' starts with the vowel 'u', it is not pronounced as such. It is pronounced as a consonant sound /ju:.niv3:.si.ti/
The indefinite article an is used before a vowel sound:

• an engineer.
• an elephant.
• an athlete