Blog about English
Idiomatic expressions with or without articles.
Many fixed expressions require the definite article.
Examples include in the morning, at the moment, on the whole, by the way, in the end and all the time.
Many fixed expressions use no article.
Examples include at home, at work, at school, at sea, by hand, by chance, by mistake, on foot and from time to time.
Some fixed expressions require the indefinite article.
Examples include in a hurry, have a look, take a seat, make a difference, have a rest and tell a lie.
Many expressions referring to time have fixed article usage.
Examples include in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at night, all day, all week and next year.
Many expressions referring to places have fixed article usage.
Examples include at home, at work, at school, in bed, in prison, at university and in hospital (British English).
Transport expressions often have fixed article patterns.
Examples include by bus, by train, by car, on foot, catch the bus and miss the train.
Many common verb phrases have fixed article usage.
Examples include take a break, make a mistake, pay attention, lose hope, keep the peace and tell the truth.
Many prepositional phrases have fixed article usage.
Examples include by accident, by mistake, in fact, on purpose, for example, in advance and at once.
Learn fixed expressions as complete phrases rather than applying article rules to each word separately.
Many common expressions are idiomatic. Memorizing them as whole units helps avoid article errors.