An article is a word that is placed before a noun and provides some information about it. There are three articles categorized into two types:

1. The definite article – The definite article refers to a specific item. Both the speaker and listener know about the thing earlier.
2. The indefinite article – The indefinite article refers to a general despite a specific item.

It is necessary to know about consonants and vowels in the English language to learn the use of A and An. The English language consists of 26 alphabets from A to Z. There are five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and all other alphabets are consonants. 

Article A: Article A is an indefinite article that is used with a singular noun starting with a consonant sound. For example: A city, A dog, A car. These words start with a consonant and give consonant sound while pronouncing.

A noun may start with a vowel but sounds like a consonant. So notice the pronunciation of the word, along with its spelling. For example: A one-way ride. Here, one is a word that starts with a vowel, but when we pronounce it, it gives a sound of v, not o. V is a consonant. 

Article An: Article An is an indefinite article that is used with a singular noun starting with a vowel sound. For example: An apple, an elephant, an owl. These words start with a vowel and have the sound of a vowel.

Just like in the case of article A, here also a word may start with a consonant, but it sounds like a vowel. For example: an hour, an honorable person. From these examples, we can say that ‘an’ is also used with those words that start with H, but while pronouncing these words, H is silent

Article The: Article ‘the’ is a definite article. It is used with a person or a thing that has already been referred to in the conversation. It means both the speaker and listener know about that person or thing.