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"She is in the eighth grade" is correct and common. You need an article because "grade" here is singular. You need "the" and not "an" because you are specifying one particularly grade that she is in: …

As MatthewW says, "the" indicates that you are referring to a specific thing or set of things, while "a" in the singular, or no article in the plural, indicates a non-specific thing. He gave a good di …

The simple rule is: If you use a singular noun that is not a proper noun (i.e. the name of someone or something), it must be preceded by an article (a/the), a possessive pronoun (my/his/etc), or one o …

"President", like "king", "governor", etc, is a title and so doesn't need an article. No doubt confusing, it CAN be used with an article. You can say, "He wants to be president" or "He wants to be the …

"The book is on the table" (not "are" as discussed in the comments, but "is") is a perfectly good sentence. Perhaps you could clarify why you fear "the" might be inappropriate. If we are talking abo …

In general, I think when a noun is used as an adjective, like here, additional adjectives modify the word that they come before. For example, "a black woman's shirt". We probably mean that the woman …

This one is a little tricky. To my ear as a native speaker, "Every child should have access to a robust education" sounds correct. You probably mean "access" here as an uncountable noun. That is, you …

Here he is using "cabbage" as a collective noun. That is, cabbage in general and not one particular cabbage. If someone was planning to invite you for dinner, they might ask, "Do you like cabbage?", …

Use "a" when the thing you are talking about is one among many. Use "the" when it is the only one or when the context limits it to just one. In this case, we are talking about the name for one parti …

It is precisely because there is only one "mankind" that you don't use an article. There's no need to distinguish whether it's one specific mankind or any of many mankinds out there. This is true of …

Ditto @EdwardBarnard, but let me add a point or maybe just restate what he said a different way. The word "the" does not mean that the thing we are referring to is the only one of its kind in the uni …

Both are grammatically valid. "Male" and "female" can be used as either nouns or adjectives. As a noun, one might say, for example, "Three males entered the room." As an adjective, one could say, "Mal …

Ah, interesting case. When you're talking about something that is not present, you use "the" when you mean that the specific thing that you want is not present, and "a" when anything in the category …

Use "a/an" when referring to an unspecified thing. Use "the" when referring to one specific thing. Use "the" if there is only one of something in existence, like "the universe". Also use "the" when th …

I think the first example is just a mistake. "Functioning" is singular and so requires an article (or one of the alternatives to an article, like a possessive). It should be "the functioning". Regardi …