Your Article Cheat Sheet

Use these guidelines to get articles right most of the time:

• First mention = "a/an": "I saw a dog in the park"
• Second mention = "the": "The dog was friendly"
• Unique or context-specific = "the": the sun, the CEO, the internet
• General category = no article: "Dogs are loyal" / "Water is essential"

Articles are the last thing to become automatic, even for advanced speakers. Be patient with yourself. Native speakers will understand you even with occasional article mistakes, so focus on communication first and perfection second.