A/AN
THE
ZERO
ARTICLE
∙ A before consonants
∙ AN before vowels
∙ only with COUNTABLE nouns
∙ before job positions
“i’m a secretary”
∙ before new information
“i have a dog”
∙ before non-specific things
“this is a pen” [there is nothing extraordinary about this pen]
∙ something we mentioned before or something specific
“this is the pen i told you about.”
∙ the only possible thing in a context
“the sun and the moon”
COUNTRIES WITH PLURAL NAMES
 The United States of America
 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
 The United Arab Emirates
 The Phillippines
∙ things in general
“ i don’t like cheese.”
∙ before NAMES [proper nouns]
- Ana [the student]
- Google [the company]
- Brazil [the country]