Usage of "a/an and the"

As a native English speaker, I thought it would have been obvious to you by now that the article aren't used as much as they are in most other Indo-European languages, such as the Romance languages. "The" is rarer in English than "Le/La,Lees,L' " is in French.

In English when we say "It's time to go to bed", in French they have to say "It's THE time to go to THE bed."

English - "I am going to town"
French - "I am going to THE town.

Usually, in English, the article is ommited before plural.

So, in English, we say "I like animals", but in other languages, such as French, they have to say "I like THE animals."

Compare singular to plural -

"I like THE elephant."
"I like elephants."

"I like reading THE story."
"I like reading stories."

There is of course the other "the" in English.
I can best best illustrate its usage by an example.
Today, Pete Sampras is a very good tennis player,
but he is not considered amongst the top
players players in the world. It would be interesting
to see a tennis match between the current world
number one and "the" Pete Sampras.

I think we shouldn't have agruments. We should find the pathway to explain the articles for Amy.

Nope, in French we say: French - "I am going in[to] THE town.

Many times, French uses IN with verbs of movement (just like German, Italian and spoken Brazilian Portuguese)...Its usage is limited in English; arrive in NYC (but arrive to otherwise)...

Welcome TO (in English), Wilkommen IN (in German), Benvenuto IN (in Italian), Bem-vindo EM (in spoken Brazilian Portuguese) :)

I think IN sounds more DIRECT, it puts stress on the destination, while TO puts the stress on the act of coming :)

1) We drove to the beach.
2) We drove onto the beach.
3) We drove on the beach.
4) We drove in the beach.
5) We drove into the beach.

Could someone explain which is correct?!

Thanks.

1), 2), 3) and 5) seem correct to me, but they all have different meanings. After 5), you may need to be taken to hospital.
With 4) you would need a vehicle with heavy duty tunneling
equipment.

<< In English when we say "It's time to go to bed", in French they have to say "It's THE time to go to THE bed." <<

Time doesn't need an article here in French. You would say "il est temps d'aller au lit" - literally, "it is time to go to the bed.

>>English - "I am going to town"
French - "I am going to THE town.>>

No article used here either in French - "je vais en ville" - literally, "(I go)I am going in town"

1) We drove to the beach.
2) We drove onto the beach.
3) We drove on the beach.
4) We drove in the beach.
5) We drove into the beach.

1) Describes the beach as a destination from somewhere else, as in we left our house this morning and drove to the beach.

2) Describes the beach as a surface, as in we left the paved road and drove right onto the beach (and promptly got stuck in the sand, I imagine!)

3) Describes the act of driving on the beach itself, as in we drove on the road for a little while, and then drove on the beach for about a mile.

4) Is incorrect; you can't say that in any meaningfulk way.

5) As Geoff says, you would only say this in special and unusual circumstances, like driving a boat aground into the beach.

Can't type this morning! -- meaningfulk = meaningful

Is no. 4 incorrect because the beach is assumed two-dimensional?

Yes.

You would say that you go for a drive in the country, in the city, in France, in Texas, because those are environments or surroundings. You would never say ON in those cases.

You would say that you drive on the road, on the beach, on the dirt, or on the sand because those are surfaces.

But you also might say that you played IN the dirt/sand and were standing IN the middle of the road. You can't use "drive" with "in" in those situations, but you can use other verbs. So sometimes idioms are hard to predict.

I wouldn't consider dirt/sand as surface. It's just material laying around (in proper sense). Then one uses IN. If dirt/sand stands for e.g. the beach, which might be dirty or does consist of much sand, then one might also use ON the dirt/sand?

Yes. It can be used both ways. It's a surface if you're driving ON it (dirt road, dirt path), and a material if you're digging/playing/planting IN it.

"No article used here either in French - "je vais en ville" - literally, "(I go)I am going in town" "

"En" means "in the" or "to the".

So, "Je vais en ville" means "I am going to the town."