The truth is that the answer is extremely complex--too complex in fact; it constantly gives me a headache. You could set out to list examples of usage as in Swan's Practical English Usage orFowler's Modern English Usage, but I have a feeling that your students will quickly get lost.
Instead, I would like to propose a few basic rules that your students could get a lot of mileage out of. I would also like to phrase these rules in a non-standard way to make them more accessible for the ESL/EFL audience. Finally, I would also like to provide a few worksheets so that students can get a feel for these rules in use. So keep in mind that the purpose of this article is to simplify an extremely complex system so that it is understood on a basic level by ESL/EFL students and not to account for every usage of articles with nouns in the English language.
The first rule explains when we use 'the' and when we use 'a', 'an', or 'some'. The second rule deals with unique nouns, which usually require a definite article. The third rule explains why we sometimes leave articles out. As I stated above, these three rules represent an over simplification of a complex system, but they are easy to understand (and teach) and ESL/EFL students should be able to grasp them.
Why is it so difficult? I suspect there are several influencing factors. First of all, articles belong to a system of determiners. And the decision to use an article or not depends on what other determiners you are using along with the noun. And it depends on the context in which you are using the noun. If you look at the list of statements about ducks to the right, it is clear that context and co-occurring determiners are a factor in using (or not) an article. In general, articles should probably not be taught in isolation, but should be included in the wider scope of the system of determiners and that will be the focus of part II on this discussion on articles.
I also suspect adults have a difficult time with articles because the nature of input that they receive is more complicated and rule-breaking compared to the input that children receive. Children deal in concrete nouns and the basic rules usually apply making it easier for children to internalize the rules. Adults on the other hand deal with abstract nouns for which the rules are less clear and sometimes contradictory. And so, children get a foundation from which they learn exceptions and adults see only an apparent random assignment of articles to nouns. But that's just my personal speculation.
Rule 1: Indefinite articles are used for previously unknown nouns that are being introduced into a dialogue or story and definite articles are used for nouns that have already been introduced (or are already known or are assumed to be known at the point of introduction to the conversation).
For example:
I saw a cat. The cat was sitting on a fence. The fence was painted brown. The cat jumped off the fence when it saw amouse. The mouse ran into a hole when it saw the cat so the cat didn't catch the mouse.
In this example, the nouns cat, fence, and mouse take an indefinite article, but only when they are introduced for the first time. After they are introduced, we use the definite article in every instance. This pattern, or rule, covers a lot of basic instances of concrete nouns, especially in story telling. This rule can extend over long periods of time and interrupted dialogue so that I can ask you to buy a pen and then several hours later I can ask you if you bought the pen.
Of course, this rule cannot be taught at the single sentence level since it requires a sentence to introduce the noun and a sentence to talk about the noun that has previously been introduced.
One exercise that I find useful is to have students fill in the articles for simple stories where several characters and objects are introduced into the story in succession. Every time a new character (knight, cat, ogre, mouse) or a new object (fence, bridge, castle) is introduced into the story the indefinite article is used and thereafter the definite article is used as per the basic rule. (See links above right).
Another good exercise that emphasizes this use of the basic rule is to have a series of flashcards with people or animals doing something and ask the students to describe what they see:
I see a monkey. The monkey is playing the drums.
I see a cat. The cat is swimming.
The pattern can be varied to suit other language needs:
There is a cat. The cat is swimming.
Some other possible ideas for using flashcards like these are:
(a) Describing colours: I see a cat. The cat is black.
(b) Describing clothes: There is a girl and a boy. The girl is wearing a dress and the boy is wearing a shirt and jeans.
(c) Describing actions: I see a knight. The knight is fighting an ogre.
(d) Describing settings of a story: Once upon a time, there wasa princess. The princess lived in a castle.
If you have to teach the use of articles, then this is the place to begin. This is the basic rule for using articles. In fact, I often tell students that this is the only rule, but there are many exceptions. The problem is that there are so many exceptions that you could spend an inordinate amount of time going over these exceptions. In the end, students would not be able to internalize these rules anyways so what's the point (except perhaps to provide a reference for writing).
Rule 2: When a Noun is Unique, Use a Definite Article
Another important rule is when something is unique* or, in other words, there is only one of that object. In this case, the definite article is used. The sun, the president, the queen of England, the capital city, and the moon are all examples. This is especially true for objects that are well known by many or most people, but it is true even when the hearer may not know the object:
A:Who's he?
B:He's the president of Korea. She's the CFO. He's the mayor.
This can be contrasted with:
A: Who's she?
B: She's a member of parliament. She's an accountant. He's an alderman.
This uniqueness can come by association:
A car crashed into a tree. The driver was seriously injured.
Once we established (introduced) the car, there could only be one driver so driver was unique at the time of introduction and we usethe driver instead of a driver. We could have rewritten this so that driver was not unique (and the car was) when it was introduced:
A driver was seriously injured when the car he was driving crashed.
A driver can only be driving one car at a time so car is unique in this instance once driver was introduced.
This exception applies to superlatives (which are usually unique in occupying the extreme postion or quality): the best place, theworst thing, the fastest runner, the tallest mountain, and the most interesting person I've ever met. This can be contrasted with comparatives such as a better mouse trap where several better mouse traps are possible.
This exception also applies to ordering (ordinal numbers used as adjectives) where it is presumed that the ordering is unique: thesecond time, the third example, the fourth person to call. In other words, once you place an order on objects they hold a unique position in that order.
This exception applies to named things (which through naming become unique):
The Rocky Mountains. (a mountain range)
The New York Islanders. (a sports team)
The Amazon River. (a river in South America)
The Pacific Ocean (An ocean)
The Steelworkers Union (an organization)
The Great Plains (a geographic locality)
The Washington Monument (a statue)
The Number Four Bus
However, this application is imperfect as some things such as named lakes and islands take no articles (Buttle Lake, Skull Island) except in plural instances (the Great Lakes, the Galapagos islands).
This exception applies to famous people who become unique in their fame:
A: I saw Nicole Kidman yesterday.
B: Nicole Kidman, the actor? (There is only one famous Nicole Kidman)
The links above right cover some of the applications of this exception.
Rule 3: When we are speaking of a noun in general weusually leave the article out and, if it is countable, use the plural form.*
So for example, when we are talking about an actual cookie or cookies that really exist or existed we use an article (definite or indefinite). In the following examples, we are speaking of specific/actual/real cookies.
I ate a cookie.
The cookie was delicious.
The cookies are on the table.
I made some cookies for you.
However, we can also make general statements about cookies. And when we do speak in general of cookies, we leave the articles out.
I like cookies.
Cookies contain a lot of sugar.
Kids shouldn't eat cookies everyday.
I enjoy making cookies.
I never eat cookies at night.
It is possible to either use an article or leave it out, but the meaning will be different in each case:
I like cookies.
(A general statement concerning cookies)
I like the cookies.
(A statement about some specific cookies that I've actually tasted)
It should be noted that when we do speak in general wecommonly use the plural form** of the noun if it is a countable noun (and just the noun if it is not countable).
Cookies are bad for your health.
(Cookie is countable and therefore put into the plural)
Pizza is bad for your health.
(Pizza is uncountable and left as is)
The links to right contain examples where students decide whether the statements are general statements or whether they are about actual objects, but they are really 'best guess' exercises since both statements I like cookies and I like the cookies are grammatically correct but are different in meaning (one is specific and one is general).
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