General Rules for the Use of Articles with Countable Nouns

§ 8. Countable nouns in the singular may be used with the in-
definite article in its nominating function and with the definite ar
ticle in its individualizing function.

e.g. They couldn't travel without a car there.

While her suit-case was being taken out of the car, she looked

round.

He shut the door behind his wife and handed me a cigar.
I didn't enjoy the cigar because it was damp.

In the plural, countable nouns may be used without any article
. or with the definite article. The absence of the article has nominat-
ing force and the definite article is used in its individualizing
function.

e.g. They couldn't travel without cars there.

While their suit-cases were being taken out of the cars, they

looked round.

He shut the door behind his wife and handed us cigars.
We didn't enjoy the cigars because they were damp.

Note. Note the use of the noun things in the meaning 'circumstances', 'condi-
tions', 'events in general', 'the present state of affairs'. It is used without any ar-
ticle in this meaning.

e.g. Your refusal will only make things worse.
Things aren't going very well at the firm.
I told him that you've let things slide for long enough.
Your father is making a mess of things.
You take things too seriously.
I must think things over.

§ 9. Since the choice of articles is determined by the context or
the general situation, we should take into consideration attributes
modifying the noun as they constitute part of the context. At-
tributes are generally divided into two classes: limiting and de-
scriptive.

A limiting attribute indicates such a quality or characteristic
of an object (or a group of objects) which makes it distinct from
all other objects of the class.

e.g. She lost her temper: 'It's the most unpleasant thing you've

ever told me."
She sat listening but the sound of her pounding heart covered

any other sound.
Alice smiled to him and took the letter he held out to her.

A descriptive attribute is used to describe an object (or a group
of objects) or give additional information about it. This kind of at-
tribute does not single out an object (or a group of objects) but
only narrows the class to which it belongs.

e.g. He wrote a novel.

He wrote a good novel.

He wrote a good historical novel.

In the above examples a good novel belongs to a narrower class
than a novel, and a good historical novel belongs to a still narrow-
er class.

We find the same in:

e.g. He smiled at the girl as she came down the stairs wearing a