Can you explain the use of 'der', 'die', 'das' and 'ein', 'eine'?

In German, articles are a bit more complicated than in English. 

Instead of only using 'the', you have 'der', 'die' and 'das'  which are all definite articles. 'Der' is masculin, 'die' is feminine and  'das' is neutral. The best way to remember which noun needs which article, is learning them together from the start.

For example, if you learn the word for 'table', don't only write down 'Tisch' but put its article in front of it: 'der Tisch'. That way your brain connects the word to the article and it's way easier to remember later on.

Now onto the indefinite article 'a/an'. This time, there are only two articles in German: 'ein' and 'eine'. For masculin and neutral words you use 'ein' and for feminine words you use 'eine'.

Good thing is: The gender of a word is always the same, so once you know that, you know which articles you need.