Distinguish when to use the or a/an and when not to use any?

I always mistake when it is right to put the or a /an or not to put at all?

Any help or most of the time I have been corrected in these tiny mistakes , how can I avoid them.

The term zero article refers to noun phrases that contain no articles, definite or indefinite. English, like many other languages, does not require an article in plural noun phrases with a generic reference, a reference to a general class of things.
English also uses no article before a mass noun or a plural noun if the reference is indefinite, a thing that is not specifically identifiable in context. For example:

  • generic mass noun: Happiness is contagious.
  • generic plural noun: Cars have accelerators.
  • generic plural noun: They want equal rights.
  • indefinite mass noun: I drink coffee.
  • indefinite plural noun: I saw cars.
    In English, the zero article rather than the indefinite article is often used with plurals and mass nouns (although the word “some” can function like an indefinite plural article):
  • Friends have told us that they like our new house.
    The definite article is sometimes omitted before some words for specific institutions, such as prison, school, and (in standard non-American dialects) hospital.
  • She is in hospice.
  • The criminal went to prison.
  • I’m going to school.
    The article may also be omitted between a preposition and the word bed when describing activities typically associated with beds.
  • He is lying in bed.
  • They went to bed.
    Where a particular location is meant, or when describing activities that are not typical, the definite article is used.
  • She was dismissed from the hospital.
  • The plumber went to the prison to fix the pipes.
  • We were jumping on the bed.
    The zero article is also used in instructions and manuals. In such cases, the references in the text are all definite, and thus no distinction between definite and indefinite has to be made.
  • Grasp drumstick. Place knife between thigh and body; cut through skin to joint. Separate thigh and drumstick at joint.
    The zero article is used with meals.
  • I have just finished dinner.
  • Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
    The zero article is used when describing calendar years.
  • I was born in 1978.
    The zero article is used before titles
  • The Board appointed him Captain.
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I remember an example from a grammar book.
a. I ate a chicken.
b. I ate chicken.
In the first case, you ate a whole chicken, and in the second case, “chicken” means the type of meat. You did not necessarily ate the whole chicken.

Another example from another grammar book:
a. London Bridge
b. the Bridge of London

In the first case, no article. The word “bridge” is a common noun; “London” is a proper noun, but “London Bridge” is a proper noun.
“PROPER NOUN + COMMON NOUN”: Heathrow Airport, Hyde Park, …

There are a lot of bridges in London, so “bridge of London” needs “the” to refer to the paticular bridge. “The Bridge of London” is a proper noun.


There used to be a road in a small town that leads to London.
It was a road to London, and it soon became “the road” to London.
It was “the London road”, and London was its endpoint.
Time passes, and people in the small town begin to call it “London Road” .

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The definite article and the Germanic languages

The definite article is a type of specific determiners

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Thank you very much I will read your comments thoroughly.!


I suppose that identifiability is the key. (This “identifiability” is not specifically identifiable, so it is used without “the” in this context.)