ABSTRACT
Students often find the rules for using articles (a, an and the) in English confusing. This chapter focuses on the definite article, the, and provides guidelines, examples and practice. Unless they are uncountable, all nouns need an article when used in the singular. The article can be either a/an or the. The rules for using the (the definite article) are quite complex. Students often have difficulty deciding if a noun phrase is specific or not. If the noun phrase is specific then usage of article is definite otherwise indefinite article. For example, The Russian climate is characterised by long cold winters. Here, the Russian climate is specific so definite article can be used. For consider another example, Climate change is a serious threat for many countries. In this example the climate change is general so the usage of article is indefinite article. The chapter presents practices for definite articles.
