Explaining articles in the English language- Part 2: "The" (definite article) This is a continuation of my last entry (by the way, I forgot to mention- "a" and "an" are "indefinite articles" and "the" is a "definite article"): The purpose of "the:" "the" communicates specificity. If I say "she lives by the river" I am communicating that you and I both understand which river I mean when I say "river." For example, maybe the river is a famous river, or maybe we both know this river very well because we live in the same town and have swum there often - or maybe it is the only river in the area. Another difference between "the" and "an" is that you can use "the" with plural nouns as well as singular nouns. For example, we can say "the pieces of paper" or "the piece of paper." We cannot say "a pieces of paper" because nouns must be singular in order to use the article "a." OK, I admit "the" can be very confusing when you are trying to decide whether or not to use an article at all. Why do we say "the Ukraine" for example, yet we say "Russia" and not "the Russia." I really don't know why we say "the Ukraine." It's a little strange, I admit. Let's just memorize that one and move on to something that makes sense. When to use an article, and when to leave it out: Let's say you want to talk to someone about taking pictures (photography). You don't want to make them think you are talking about taking specific pictures, but rather just taking pictures in general. You might say "I enjoy taking a picture of every new place I visit." But what if you take more than one picture when you visit a new place? You should say "I enjoy taking pictures of every new place I visit." Don't replace "an" with "the" just because you now are using a plural noun. That would make your listener think he or she ought to know exactly what pictures you are talking about, which would confuse him or her. The word "pictures" is still a general noun for your purposes. Now suppose your listener responds with the question "what do you do with the pictures?" He or she is now referring to specific pictures - the ones you were telling him or her about, the ones you take when you visit a new place. Now you should use "the" and might say "I print the pictures and put them on my wall in my bedroom." Notice you could have said "the wall in my bedroom," too. I'll have to save that lesson for a future notebook entry. :) Looks like I'll need one more notebook entry to finish discussing articles :)