Articles

Definition.

An article is a limiting word, not descriptive, which cannot be used alone, but always joins to a substantive word to denote a particular thing, or a group or class of things, or any individual of a group or class.

Two relics.

Our expressions the one, the other, were formerly that one, that other; the latter is still preserved in the expression, in vulgar English, the tother. Not only this is kept in the Scotch dialect, but the former is used, these occurring as the tane, the tother, or the tane, the tither; for example,—We ca’ her sometimes the tane, sometimes the tother.—Scott.

An before vowel sounds, a before consonant sounds.

Ordinarily an is used before vowel sounds, and a before consonant sounds. Remember that a vowel sound does not necessarily mean beginning with a vowel, nor does consonant sound mean beginning with a consonant, because English spelling does not coincide closely with the sound of words. Examples: “a house,” “an orange,” “a European,” “an honor,” “a yelling crowd.”

An with consonant sounds.

Many writers use an before h, even when not silent, when the word is not accented on the first syllable.

• An historian, such as we have been attempting to describe, would indeed be an intellectual prodigy.—Macaulay. 

• The Persians were an heroic people like the Greeks.—Brewer. 

• He [Rip] evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to anything else but his business.—Irving.  

• An habitual submission of the understanding to mere events and images.—Coleridge.  

• An hereditary tenure of these offices.—Thomas Jefferson. 

An article is a little word that comes before a noun. There are two kinds of articles: definite articles and indefinite articles. In English there is just one definite article: “the”. There are two indefinite articles: “a” and “an”. The word “an” is used before a word starting with a vowel sound: we say “a horse”, “a child”, “a European” (Euro has a “Y” sound), “a university”, but “an orange”, “an elephant”. Some languages have more than one word for “the”. This is because each noun is either masculine or feminine or, in some languages it can be masculine, feminine or neuter. For example: in French “le” is used for masculine nouns (“le jardin” – “the garden”) and “la” for feminine nouns (“la table” – “the table”). “The” becomes “les” in front of plural nouns. The indefinite articles in French are “un” (masculine) and “une” (feminine). German and Dutch have masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, but in the case of Dutch the word for “the” is the same for masculine and feminine (“de”) so you do not need to know which it is. Some languages (for example: Russian and Japanese) do not have articles. When speakers of these languages are learning English, it is often difficult to explain to them what an article is. English speakers use them automatically.

In general: “the” in English is used for something you have already been talking about. The word “a” is used when introducing a new idea:

• “The tired woman was looking for her cat. Suddenly she saw the cat up a tree”. (We are already talking about the cat. The tree is a new idea).

• “The tired woman was walking along when she suddenly saw a cat up a tree”. (She had not been thinking about cats until then).

Sometimes we do not need an article, for example when talking about something in general:

• “The dogs do not bite” (meaning: Mr Smith’s dogs). “Barking dogs do not bite” (barking dogs in general).