SPECIFIC AND GENERIC STATEMENTS

Before we plunge headlong into Articles, we need to talk about 'Specific' and 'Generic' statements or information. If you want to make a statement about the general characteristics or properties of something (how a thing usually or always works; what a thing usually or always does or how it behaves), you are being Generic. In this case, and when you are talking about one thing (single), you use ‘a’ or ‘an’, because you aren’t ‘pointing’ to one thing in particular:

Generic Singular = a/an + singular noun (A cow gives milk)

If you want to be Generic about all the things (plural) in that noun group – cows, diamonds, houses, phones – you don’t use an article before the noun:

Generic Plural = start with plural noun (Cows give milk)

When you want to refer to one particular thing among others or one particular group of things among other groups (identify/indicate something in particular), you are being specific. Here, you should use ‘the’, because you are ‘pointing’ to that thing or those things, even when there are other similar things to talk about:

Specific Singular = the + singular noun (The cow gives milk)

Specific Plural = the + plural noun (The cows give milk)

In the pages to follow, our diagrams explain the rules for using articles with different types of nouns; but most of them will follow this Specific-Generic pattern. Keep it in mind and it will be a great help for remembering how to use articles. At the end of this section is a 'Summing Up' page, to help you recap and to summarise the rules for using Articles. Good luck!