What are Articles?

Articles

• Articles are words used to qualify nouns.
• ‘The’, ‘A’ and ‘An’ are the articles used in English.
• Articles do not have meanings of their own, but their presence or absence affects the significance of nouns in sentences.
• They appear before nouns and function in a way similar to adjectives; they are, in fact, demonstrative adjectives.

Let us look at a few examples:

In the above examples, we see that the articles are used immediately before a noun in the first case; before two adjectives and a noun in the second case; and before three adjectives and a noun in the third case. Therefore, we can say that an article may sometimes be used before a noun or sometimes be separated from the noun by adjectives.

Types of Articles

The Definite Article

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• To represent a noun kind

• With the names of oceans, rivers, seas, mountain ranges, peaks, forests, gulfs and a group of islands

• With the names of historical monuments

• With the names of countries which are titles

• With the names of certain countries and provinces

• With the names of things which are unique or are one of a kind

• With proper nouns, only if there is an adjective between the two

• With proper nouns, to specify a particular person

• With superlative adjectives

• With adjectives

In such cases, the adjective functions like a noun.

• With surnames, to represent the whole family

• Before musical instruments

Indefinite Articles

• ‘A’ and ‘An’ are indefinite articles. They are used to
• Refer to nouns which are not specific or certain

• Signify ‘one’ in the numerical sense

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Differences between ‘A’ and ‘An’

• The articles ‘A’ and ‘An’ are similar in function.
• That is, they both qualify nouns that are uncertain.
• However, ‘A’ precedes nouns that begin with consonant sounds.
• The article ‘An’ precedes nouns that begin with vowel sounds.

Using ‘An’

‘An’ is used

• With nouns which begin with vowel sounds

• With nouns which may begin with a consonant letter but may have a vowel sound

• With abbreviations which begin with a vowel sound

• Sometimes, words which begin with the letter ‘H’ may be pronounced without stressing on the first syllable (pronounced istoric instead of historic). In such cases, ‘An’ is used as an article.

Nouns without Articles

Sometimes, articles are not used with nouns. Articles are not used

• When the noun is used in a universal sense. It could represent all of its kind.

• Before the names of material nouns

• While using proper nouns which are names of people or places