Articles (Penggunaan a, an dan the)

A AND AN

A or an can precede only singular count nouns; they mean one. 

They can be used in a general statement or to introduce a subject which has not been previously mentioned.

Example :

A baseball is round.                                         (general – means all baseball)

I saw a boy in the street.                                  (we don’t know which boy)

An is used before a words that begin with a vowel sound. A is used before words that begin with a consonant sound.

Example :

A book                                                  An apple

Some words can be confusing because the spelling does not indicate the pronounciation.

A house                             (begin with a consonant sound)

An hour                             (begin with a vowel sound)

A university                        (begin with a consonant sound)

An umbrella                       (begin with a vowel sound)

The following words begin with a consonant sound and thus must always be preceded by a.

European House Uniform

Eulogy Home University

Euphemism Heavy Universal

Eucalyptus Half Union

The following words begin with a vowel sound and thus must always be preceded be an.

Hour Uncle

Heir Umbrella

Herbal Unnatural

Honor Understanding

The initial sound of the word that immediately follows the indefinite article will determine whether it sound be a  or an.

Example :                            An umbrella                                       a white umbrella

                                          An hour                                              a whole hour

THE

The is used to indicate something that we already know about or something that is common knowledge.

Example :

The boy in the corner is my friend.                           (that speaker and the listener know which boy)

The earth is round.                                                  (there is only one earth)

With non-count nouns, one uses the article the if speaking in specific terms, but uses no article if speaking in general.

Example :

Sugar is sweet.                                                       (general – all sugar)

The sugar on the table is from cuba.                        (specific – the sugar that is on the table)

Normally, plural count nouns, when they mean everything within a certain class, are not preceded by the.

Normally a proper noun is not preceded by an article unless there are several people or things with the same name and the speaker is specifying one of them.

Normally words such as as breakfast, lunch, dinner, school, church, home, collage, and work do not use any article unless to restrict the meaning.

USE THE WITH	DON’T USE THE WITH
Oceans, rivers, seas, gulfs, plural Lakes The Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Persian Gulf The Great Lake Mountains The Rocky Mountains The Andes Eart, Moon The Earth, The Moon	Singular lakes Lake Geneva Lake Eric Mounts Mount Vesuvius Mount McKinley Planets, Constellations Venus, Mars, Earth, Orion