A / AN

1. Before a singular noun which is countable when it is mentioned for the first time:
I need a visa.
They live in a flat. He bought an ice-cream.
2. Before a singular countable noun which is used as an example of a class of things:
A car must be insured = All cars/ Any car must be insured.
3. With names of professions: Shell be a dancer. He is an actor.
4. With certain numbers: a hundred a thousand
5. In exclamations before singular, countable nouns:
Such a long queue! What a pretty girl! But: Such long queues! What pretty girls!
THE ZERO ARTICLE
1. Before plural nouns a/an has no plural form.
2. Before uncountable nouns.
3. Before names of meals, except where these are proceded by an adjective:
We have breakfast at eight.
He gave us a good breakfast.
4. Before names of games and sports: He plays golf.
5. Before names of streets, parks, squares, bridges, railway stations and airports:
Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square, Hyde park, Waterloo Bridge, Victoria Station, Heathrow
Airport
6. Before home, church, hospital, prison, school, etc. and before work, sea, town when
these places are visited or used for their primary purpose, for example:
We go home to live, to bed to sleep, to hospital as patients, to church to pray, to prison as
prisoners, to school/college/university to study
When these places are visited or used for other reasons, the is necessary!
(He went to prison for committing a robbery. BUT He went to the prison to visit his
friend.)
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8.

THE
When the object or group of objects is unique or considered to be unique:
the earth, the sea, the sky, the equator,the stars
Before a noun previously mentioned.
Before a noun when it is clear whatwe are referring to.
Before superlatives and first, second, used as adjectives or pronouns, and only.
Before species of animal: The whale is in danger of becoming extinct.
Before an adjective representing a class of persons: the old = old people in general
Before certain proper names of oceans, rivers, seas, canals (except lakes), groups of
islands,chains of mountains, plural names of countries, deserts, regions:
The Atlantic, the Netherlands, the Rockies, the Thames, the Sahara, the Bahamas, the
City, the Sudan, the Ruhr, the Hague, the Ukraine BUT the Lake Ontario.
Before buildings, institutions, museums, galleries:
the National Gallery, the Tower of London, the Capitol, the Ministry of Finance
BUT the Westminster Abbey, the Eton College, the Buckingham Palace (when the proper
noun comes first)

9. Before names of newspapers: the Times

10. Before names of theatres, restaurants, hotels: the Palace hotel, the National Theatre
BUT the Wyndhams Theatre
11. Before plural surname meaning the family: the Smiths.