Article

You would have come across the simple word article many times while reading and speaking English and would probably know what it means very well. But are you aware of the term article in English grammar? Yes, the word article has an entirely different meaning in English grammar language.

In today’s article, I will discuss about the term article and its usage and definition in English language.

Article

An article is a word or words that define and describe a noun and its specificity. Specificity refers to whether a noun is specific or unspecific.

Example:

He has a cup of coffee every evening.

Here, the noun cup of coffee is not specific thus it is accompanied by a.

Take this example for instance,

The coffee tasted different today.

In the above example, the article the is used define coffee which shows that it was a specific coffee and not an ordinary coffee which tasted different.

In English language, there are two types of articles, the definite article and the indefinite article.

Definite Article

The definite article is used to describe a particular and specific noun and it limits its meaning to that particularity and specificity. Whenever a specific noun is used in a sentence, it must be preceded with the. The is the only definite article in English language.

Example:

Are you studying for the test today?

In this example, use of the with test indicates that it is a definite noun and you are referring to a test that you and the other person both know about.

Indefinite Article

An indefinite article is used to describe a noun in a sentence which does not have any peculiarity or specificity. In other words, an indefinite article refers to something that has a general meaning. There are two forms of indefinite article i.e. a and an. The usage of both these types of indefinite articles depends on the first letter of the noun it is used to define. If the noun starts with a consonant, the article a is used. However, if the noun begins with a vowel, then the indefinite article an is used to define it.

Example

He brought a book to the show.

In this example, a is an indefinite article which describes the noun book. We used a here because book described in the above example is any ordinary book which is not important for the audience. Also, as the noun book starts with a consonant b, we used a instead of an.

His sister is an innocent woman.

The above example makes use of indefinite article an which describes the noun woman. We used an here because the noun woman begins with a vowel w.