 Common errors in English with a, an, and the. Number one. Do not use a or an with plural or uncountable nouns. For example, a fact is correct because fact is singular, but you can't say a facts because facts is plural. An information and an advice are also incorrect, because information and advice are uncountable nouns. However, you can say a piece of information or a piece of advice. Don't say a pants, a glasses, or a scissors. You need to say a pair of pants, a pair of glasses, and a pair of scissors. Rice, butter, and ice are also uncountable, so you can't use the word a, but you can say a grain of rice, a stick of butter, and an ice cube. Number two. Whether you use a or an follows the sound, not the letter of the next word. For example, we say a uniform because uniform starts with a y sound, but an umbrella because umbrella starts with an a sound, a vowel sound. We say a hat because hat starts with an h sound, but in the word hour the h is silent, so we say an hour. We say a non-governmental organization when we say the full words, but when we abbreviate it, then we say an NGO. Why? Because the letter n starts with a vowel sound, a, an NGO. Number three. Do not use a or an without a noun following it. For example, you can't say I am a Japanese because Japanese is an adjective and there is no noun in the sentence. Instead, you could say I am Japanese or I am a Japanese woman. In this case, it's okay to use a because there's a noun, woman, after the adjective Japanese. Here's another example. He is an intelligent. This is not possible because intelligent is an adjective and there is no noun. Instead, say he is intelligent or he is an intelligent man. The word the can be used for singular or plural and countable or uncountable for specific things, not for general things. For example, vegetables are good for you. That's vegetables in general, so we don't use the word the. But if you say the vegetables at the market are always fresh, then we are talking about specific vegetables, the ones at the market. So we use the word the before vegetables. Here's another example. I need advice. That's advice in general. Any advice would be useful. But in the sentence, the advice you gave me was very helpful. Now we're talking about some specific advice, the advice you gave me, so we put the word the before advice. Do not use the with continents, countries, with some exceptions, states, cities, or streets. So Asia, Paris, Europe, California, Russia, and Main Street do not include the word the. The exceptions are the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as their short forms, the US and the UK, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands, and one more I didn't have room for, the Central African Republic. Do not use the with companies and universities, again with some exceptions. The companies Samsung and Microsoft and the universities, Harvard, Hamilton College, and New York University do not use the word the. Only use the if the university name starts with the word university, as in the case of the University of Pennsylvania. Do not use the for languages and holidays, like Spanish, Italian, Christmas, New Year's Day, or Independence Day. Now with other places it's a little tricky. Don't use the with individual lakes or mountains, like Mount Everest, Pike's Peak, or Lake Ontario. Use the with oceans, rivers, valleys, deserts, and mountain ranges. That's groups of mountains. For example, the Pacific Ocean, the Amazon River, the San Fernando Valley, the Sahara Desert, and the Rocky Mountains. As well as with specific points on the globe, like the North Pole, the South Pole, and the equator. What about some places that aren't proper nouns? Don't use the in these sentences. I'm going home. She's at work. He's in jail. We attend church. My kids went to bed. My sisters in high school. My brothers in college. But you need to use the with these places. I went to the bank. Let's go to the movies. He's at the office. The office meaning his place of work. I'll stop by the post office. My dad's in the hospital. I got a taxi to the airport. We're at the train station. Or we're at the bus stop. We took my son to the doctor. Or the dentist. Thanks for watching. For more lessons, check out the English tips, e-books, and courses at espressoenglish.net.