I know this is kind of a random question to ask here, but I really need your help!

I've been living in Canada for 12 years now and I am still having a problem with definite and indefinite articles ("the" and "a or an").

I don't know if it's only me, or is anyone else having the same problem? lol..

Sometimes when I write a report or a journal, I ALWAYS get stuck when I have to decide between "a" and "the".

Of course I know that we use "the" in front of plural and "a" in front of singular terms, but sometimes, we don't even use "the" in front of a plural term...

Can anyone please give me a clear clarification?

It doesn't really have much to do with plural vs singular, since you can use "the" for singular things too.

"The" tends to refer to something specific, whereas "a/an" can be any of that object in general.

For example, if I say "I'm going to eat the apple", that sentence would only make grammatical sense if there was a specific apple that I was referring to. If there isn't, then the sentence should be "I'm going to eat an apple."

Similarly, "I'm going to feed a dog" doesn't make sense unless I actually plan on feeding any random dog. If I'm going to feed my dog specifically, then I could say, "I'm going to feed the dog."

Does that make sense?

Originally Posted by ta2012

I know this is kind of a random question to ask here, but I really need your help!

I've been living in Canada for 12 years now and I am still having a problem with definite and indefinite articles ("the" and "a or an").

I don't know if it's only me, or is anyone else having the same problem? lol..

Sometimes when I write a report or a journal, I ALWAYS get stuck when I have to decide between "a" and "the".

Of course I know that we use "the" in front of plural and "a" in front of singular terms, but sometimes, we don't even use "the" in front of a plural term...

Can anyone please give me a clear clarification?

If it makes you feel any better, you used "a" and "the" correctly in all instances in your post. Where are you having trouble?

Also woo 1000 posts

"the" is for definite objects. If you're talking about something you introduced with "an/a" previously, then you now use "the" when referring to it again.

"a/an" is used when you're introducing an object for the first time, or if you're referring to "any" of that object.

The difference with plural is only in that you just drop the "a/an" when you're referring to "any" group of that object. "the" is used the same way otherwise.

Hopefully that helps you out. I'm gonna guess you're a native speaker of an Eastern European or Asian language if this concept is giving you trouble.

Haha thanks everyone!
It helped me a lot