Jobs and Professions — A Doctor, An Engineer
Practice 'a/an' with occupations after be, become, work as and want to be. Learn why English always uses the indefinite article with job descriptions.
Articles with Jobs and Professions
In English, describing someone's occupation always requires a or an before the job title. This applies after be, become, work as, train as, and want to be. The rule is absolute for singular countable job nouns — zero article is ungrammatical ('She is teacher' is wrong) and 'the' implies a unique or specific individual rather than a general role. Research on learner errors identifies omission of a/an before professions as a highly frequent mistake among speakers of Russian, Chinese, Turkish, and other languages that use no article with occupations. The explanation is cross-linguistic: in these languages, the equivalent sentences use no article ('Она — врач', literally 'She doctor'), making the English requirement for a/an non-obvious.
Be + Job
My sister is an architect and works for a big company.
He is a doctor at a large hospital.
Become / Work As / Train As
She works as an electrician.
She wants to become a journalist.
Why 'A/An', Not 'The'?
Using 'the' with a job title makes it specific — it implies there is one particular person holding a unique role. 'She is the doctor' could mean the one specific doctor (for example, in a village with only one). 'She is a doctor' describes her profession in general. For everyday occupation descriptions, always use a/an.
✗ He became doctor after seven years. → ✓ He became a doctor.
✗ She is nurse at the hospital. → ✓ She is a nurse at the hospital.