My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

Smart Alec: The is the most common word in the English language.

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Absolute zero
Another way to make a statement more general is to use no article at all. This is
sometimes referred to as the zero article and usually applies to plurals or mass
nouns (see
here
).
Women are not good with maps .
Shorts are not suitable office attire.
Cats are thankless creatures.
Grammar is hard to learn.
No need for introductions…
Pronouns and proper nouns do not require articles. They stand by themselves.
I am not good at grammar.
David Beckham is better at grammar than I am.
A or an ?
Rule: nouns or adjectives beginning in a vowel usually take the article an , while
nouns or adjectives beginning with a consonant take the article a .
For example:
an orange, a peach
an octopus, a squid
an axe, a chopper
an island, a continent.
an orange orange, a red appl e
However,  as  usual  there  are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  because  some  vowels  are
sometimes  pronounced  as  if  they  were  consonants,  and  some  h  s  aren’t
pronounced at all: