I can’t for the life of me figure out where to use a and where to use the — and where there is no article at all. Is there a simple rule of thumb to memorize?
The standard rule you always hear:
“If a person knows which item you are talking about then use "the"
. . . doesn’t clear things up for me, as I have no idea whether or not they know.
Best Answer
Well, if you insist on the rule being simple, here you are:
Two simple examples. Note that you just wrote "...if a person knows which item you are talking about...". You didn't write "...if the person knows...". And that's correct, because you are not pointing to this or that person, you are talking about any person in general.
On the other hand, my answer starts with "if you insist on the rule being simple". That's because you asked for a rule (= any rule), and I am now talking about that rule. We are talking about the same thing.
Now, I can't think of a (= any) simple rule of thumb when not to use an (= any) article at all, but here are some suggestions:
Examples: