Article: zero

 

No article – the so-called ‘zero article’ – is put before plural and uncountable nouns that have a general meaning.

• Tea is mostly imported from India and Sri Lanka.
• Cats drink milk.
• I like comics.

 

We can use the zero article (no article) in the following ways:

 

1. with plural nouns that are not specific:

•  I see flowers in the vase.
• We have bananas in the kitchen.

 

2. to talk about places and institutions whose purpose is clear to everyone:

• Children start school in September.
•  It’s time to go to bed, kids!

 

3. to talk about names of places:

•  London is the capital of Great Britain.
•  You’ll see many beautiful sights all over Vienna.

Note: Some places, specifically some countries, do have the definite article ‘the‘ in front of them, i.e. the United Kingdom (the UK), the USA (the United States of America), the Netherlands, etc.

 

4. with plural nouns to talk about a class of things in general:

• Cheetahs run faster than any mammal. (the whole species in general, not particular cheetahs)
• Rivers always flow into seas and oceans.

 

5. with the names of persons. (Of course, we can still use ‘the’ to differentiate between two or more persons that might have the same names):

•  Yesterday I saw Tim Smith.
• Was it the Tim Smith who visited our meeting last Friday or someone else?

 

6. with other determiners:

•  I need some information.
•  My house is next to the bus stop.

 

7. with uncountable or abstract nouns:

•  Do you like coffee?
•  Art is subjective.

*The other articles include ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’.