A/the articles

After the death of the emperor she became an empress dowager.

I would use "the" for both. Unless the new emporer's grandmother is still alive, there is only one empress dowager.

tmn111Which articles should I use in the following sentence?

After (the?) death of the emperor she became (the/an?) empress dowager.

Thanks.

Well, I can't claim any knowledge of how such things work in empires so I'll offer some comments that may help you clarify the meaning.

First you are right about "the death", second wh

RayHsecond whether you use "a" or "an" depends

Well I really botched that didn't I? Obviously it's "an" or "the"

RayHIt could also be depend on

It also occurs to me that you might not need an article at all. Again depending on the context.

Thanks for the replies, now I understand more the difference between the and a/an.
This (I mean articles) is the worst thing for learners.
It should be "the" in the second part of the sentence.

tmn111Which articles should I use in the following sentence?

After (the?) death of the emperor she became (the/an?) empress dowager.

I would reword your sentence as follows:

After the death of the emperor, she became Empress Dowager.

The main difference between 'a' and 'the' is that for 'the' the listener knows which object you are talking about. But, for 'a' the listener does not know the object you are talking about.

So the correct sentence would be:

After the death of the emperor she became the empress dowager. (There is only one dowager, so the listener knows exactly what you are talking about.)