Join the new world

Since someone pointed out at the lack of articles in our media. I decided to write an article on articles.

So...

What is an article?

Articles are actually adjectives because they describe the nouns that they precede. In English, there are only three articles: the, a, and an. However, the three are not interchangeable; rather, they are used in specific instances.

Indefinite articles (a and an)
In English, a and an are indefinite articles, which means that they don't refer to anything definite or specific.

If someone were to say, "Give me an apple", you might be inclined to run out and pick one from the tree outside, or you may even run to the store and buy one. By using the word an, the speaker has let you know that he or she is looking for any apple rather than a specific one.

The same can be said for the article a. If someone told you there's a dog on the road, you would probably want to go out and save it before a car came by. Furthermore, you would know it's not your best friend's dog because the speaker chose to use the word a rather than call the pooch by name. Hence, it's understood that the dog on the road is one of the millions of dogs in the world and is therefore not specific.

How do I know which one to use?

The rule for indefinite article usage is as follows:
- Use a before nouns (or adjectives) that start with a consonant sound.
- Use an before nouns (or adjectives) that start with a vowel sound.
Here are some examples:
Please give the dog a cookie. (The noun cookie starts with a consonant sound, so a must be used.)
Please give the dog a delicious cookie. (The adjective delicious is used in front of cookie, but as you can see, delicious still starts with a consonant sound, so a must still be used.)
That's an old car. (In this case, the word after the article is old, which starts with a vowel sound. Consequently, we must use an.)

The definite article (the)

There is only one definite article in the English language (the). The is used in front of singular or plural nouns and adjectives to refer to something with which both the speaker/writer and listener/reader are familiar.

For example, if you're bouncing a basketball at school, your friend might say, "Give me the ball." In this case, both you and your friend recognize that there is only one specific ball being referred to, and that's the one you're bouncing. Your friend doesn't want a ball (meaning any ball); he or she wants the ball that you're holding.

If you introduce a word with a or an, you may use the anytime thereafter because the introduction has made both the speaker/writer and listener/reader familiar with the word.

Here's an example:
Sarah bought a book yesterday. She read the first three pages when she got home and decided to return the book because it was boring.
It can be seen that after the introduction (the first sentence, which uses an indefinite article), we can use the definite article because the reader is familiar with the book.

Sorry for the long article...hope you guys are clear about articles....


xxordin