Articles

We can use articles before nouns.

I saw a lion and an elephant on safari.
The lion was scary.

How to use them

We use a and an with singular nouns. We use a before a consonant sound and an before a vowel sound.

I've got a pencil and an eraser.
There's a big umbrella and an orange pencil case in my bag.

The first time we mention a noun, we use a or an. The next time, we use the.

She had a sandwich and an apple for lunch. She didn't like the sandwich.
We've got an old car. The car is blue.

We don't usually use articles for people's names, countries or meals.

My best friend is called Mai.
Is she from Japan?
They had breakfast at 9 o'clock.