Grammer | Articles
Articles
What are 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:
• The bridge
• A blue-feathered small bird
• An amazing, unbelievable, awe-inspiring instance
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.
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Grammer | Articles
Types of Articles
The Definite Article
• ‘The’ is a definite article.
• We use ‘The’
With nouns to refer to specific nouns
• The Russian doll on the shelf
• The homeless man on the pavement
• The Duke of Edinburgh
▪ To represent a noun kind
• The whale is an enormous fish.
• The owl is a nocturnal bird.
• The coconut tree is known as ‘Kalpavriksha’.
• With the names of oceans, rivers, seas, mountain ranges, peaks, forests, gulfs and a group of
islands
• The Alps
• The Nile
• The Arctic Ocean
• The Black Forest
• The Lakshadweep
• With the names of historical monuments
• The Eiffel Tower
• The Pyramids of Giza
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa
• The Easter Island Statues
• The Sydney Opera House
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Grammer | Articles
• With the names of countries which are titles
• The United States of America
• The United Arab Emirates
• The Republic of China
• With the names of certain countries and provinces
• The Punjab
• The Hague
• The Ukraine
• With the names of things which are unique or are one of a kind
• The Sun
• The Moon
• The sky
• With proper nouns, only if there is an adjective between the two
• The annoying Mr Shekhar
• The talented Leann
• The great Shakespeare
• With proper nouns, to specify a particular person
• She is not the Katherine I had in mind.
• This is the same Mr Suleiman whom I met yesterday.
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Grammer | Articles
• With superlative adjectives
• The best slice of cake I have ever had
• The most important person in the room
• The tallest boy in the class
• With adjectives
In such cases, the adjective functions like a noun.
• The greedy will never be satisfied.
• Paradise is reserved for the brave.
• The good will never lose to the evil.
• With surnames, to represent the whole family
• The Guptas will be visiting us tomorrow.
• The Folgers were in a hurry.
• The Subramaniums are our neighbours.
• Before musical instruments
• He can play the flute.
• The band played the trumpet.
• Mr Woods plays the violin beautifully.
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Grammer | Articles
Indefinite Articles
• ‘A’ and ‘An’ are indefinite articles.
They are used to
• Refer to nouns which are not specific or certain
• A piece of cheese
• A tall building
• A criminal
• Signify ‘one’ in the numerical sense
• There was a feather on his hat.
• I need a room to keep my belongings in.
• Leela wanted to have a word with me.
• Refer to nouns which the speaker/hearer is not sure about
• I cannot recall the name of a man who lived here.
• A woman was here asking for you.
• A magician was hired to entertain the guests.
• Convert a proper noun to a common noun
• There is a Kanchan in my class.
• A Delilah betrays a Samson again.
• A Gandhi is born today.
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Grammer | Articles
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
o An ant
o An elephant
o An antelope
• With nouns which may begin with a consonant letter but may have a vowel sound
• An honest person
• An heir to the throne
• An hour
• With abbreviations which begin with a vowel sound
• An FIR
• An MBA
• An NYU graduate
• 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.
• An historic episode
• An hotel
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Grammer | Articles
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.
• Child is the father of man.
• Man is a social animal.
• Before the names of material nouns
• Copper is used for making wires.
• Tea is plucked from its shrub.
• Silver is used for making ornaments.
• While using proper nouns which are names of people or places
• Kala is a fantastic dancer.
• Beirut is the capital of Lebanon.
• Romania is a European country.
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