I had a sandwich and an apple for lunch. The sandwich wasn’t very

good, but the apple was delicious.

John is talking to Karen on the phone…

Use “the” when you are thinking of a particular thing

Use “a” or “an” when talking or describing something for the first time

Jail/prison high school

Church bed

School/college work home

…to talk about a type of animal, machine, etc.

e.g. Can you play the guitar? The piano is my favorite instrument.

Compare “a”

e.g. I’d like to have a guitar. We saw a giraffe in the zoo.

…and an adjective to talk about groups of people ; we also use the with a nationality to mean “the people of that country”

e.g. Do you think the rich should pay more taxes to help the poor?

The Chinese invented printing.

…with names of countries with Republic, Kingdom, States, etc.:

e.g. the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States of America

…with names of oceans, rivers and canals

e.g. the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, The Amazon,

The Suez Canal

…with plural names of people and placese.g. the Mitchells, the Johnsons, the

Netherlands, the Philippines, the Bahamas, the Rockies, the Andes, the Alps

…with north, south, east, and west, except when it is part of a name.

e.g. north of Mexico but North America

*You do not put “the” when the words are northern, eastern, southern, and western

e.g. southeastern Canada, northern Mexico

…with names of buildings or institutions except when it starts with a name of a person or place.

e.g. the White House, the National Library,

the Holiday Inn Boston University, Lincoln Center

…with names of most streets/roads/squares/parks, etc.

e.g. Ongpin, Roxas Boulevard, Rizal Park

…with establishments that have names that end in –’s or –s.

e.g. Lloyds Bank, Macy’s, McDonalds

…with names of companies, airlines, etc.e.g. Sony, United Airlines, IBM, Kodak

…to say what kind of thing or person something/somebody is:

e.g. A dog is an animal. I am an optimist. What a pretty dress! Jill is a really nice person.

Before a vowel-sounding word

e.g. an honor student, an hour, an x-ray, an honest person, an exciting event, an applicant

With consonant-sounding words

e.g. a university, a European trip, a union, a plan, a lazy Sunday afternoon

1. Call an ambulance. There’s been ______. a. accident b. an accident c. some accident2. “Where are you going?” “I’m going to buy

_____. “ a. a bread b. some bread c. a loaf of bread3. Sandra is _____. She works at a big

hospital. a. nurse b. a nurse c. the nurse

4. She works six days _____ week. a. in b. for c. a d. the 5. There are millions of stars in _____. a. space b. a space c. the space6. Everyday _____ begins at 9 and finishes at

3. a. school b. a school c. the school 7. _____ a problem in most big cities. a. Crime is b. The crime is c. The crimes are

8. When _____ invented? a. was telephone b. were telephones

c. was the telephone d. were the telephones9. We visited _____. a. Canada and United States b. the Canada and the United States c. Canada and the United States d. the Canada and United States

10. Daniel is a student at _____. a. the Boston University b. Boston

University c. a Boston University

Source: Grammar In Use: Intermediate 2nd edition Authors: Raymond Murphy with William R.

Smalzer (Published by Cambridge University Press)