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Thearticles inEnglish are thedefinite articlethe and the indefinitearticlesa andan. They are the two most commondeterminers. The definite article is the default determiner when the speaker believes that the listener knows the identity of acommon noun'sreferent (because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in the same sentence or an earlier sentence). The indefinite article is the default determiner for other singular, countable, common nouns, while no determiner is the default for other common nouns. Other determiners are used to add semantic information such as amount (many,a few), proximity (this,those), or possession (my,the government's).
English grammar requires that, in most cases, asingular, countablenoun phrase start with a determiner.[1] For example,I have a box is grammatically correct, but *I have box[a] is not. The most common determiners are the articlesthe anda(n), which specify the presence or absence ofdefiniteness of the noun. Other possible determiners include words likethis,my,each andmany. There are also cases where no determiner is required, as in the sentenceJohn likes fast cars, where neitherJohn norfast cars includes a determiner.
The definite articlethe is the default when the referent of the noun phrase headed by a common noun is assumed to be unique or known from the context. For example, In the sentenceThe boy with glasses was looking at the moon, it is assumed that in the context the reference can only be to one boy and one moon. However, the definite article isnot typically used:
The indefinite articlea (before aconsonant sound) oran (before avowel sound) is used only withsingular,countable nouns. It indicates that the referent of the noun phrase is one unspecified member of a class. For example, the sentenceAn ugly man was smoking a pipe does not specify the identity of the ugly man or pipe.
When referring to a particular date, the definite articlethe is typically used.[2]
When referring to a day of the week, the indefinite article "a" or definite article "the" may be used, following the same guidelines of generality versus specificity.
No article is used with plural or uncountable nouns when the referent is indefinite (just as in the generic definite case described above). However, in such situations, the determinersome is often added (orany in negative contexts and in many questions). For example:
Additionally, articles are not normally used:
If it is required to be concise, e.g. inheadlines, signs, labels, and notes, articles are often omitted along with certain otherfunction words. For example, rather thanThe mayor was attacked, a newspaper headline might say justMayor attacked.
For more information on article usage, see the sectionsdefinite article andindefinite article below. For more cases where no article is used, seeZero article in English.
In most cases, the article is the first word of its noun phrase, preceding all otheradjectives and modifiers.[3]
There are a few things that are the same, and:
See alsoEnglish determiners § Combinations of determiners andDeterminers and adjectives.
The onlydefinite article in English is the wordthe, denoting person(s) or thing(s) already mentioned, under discussion, implied, or otherwise presumed familiar to the listener or reader.The is the most commonly used word in the English language, accounting for 7% of all words used.[4]
"The" can be used with both singular and plural nouns, with nouns of any gender, and with nouns that start with any letter. This is different from many other languages which have different articles for different genders and/or numbers.
Since "the" is one of the most frequently used words in English, at various times short abbreviations for it have been found:
Occasional proposals have been made by individuals for an abbreviation. In 1916, Legros & Grant included in their classic printers' handbookTypographical Printing-Surfaces, a proposal for a letter similar toĦ to represent "Th", thus abbreviating "the" to ħe.[5]
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In Middle English,the (þe) was frequently abbreviated as aþ with a smalle above it, similar to the abbreviation forthat, which was aþ with a smallt above it. During the latter Middle English andEarly Modern English periods, the letterthorn (þ) in its common script, orcursive, form came to resemble ay shape. With the arrival ofmovable type printing, the substitution of⟨y⟩ for⟨Þ⟩ became ubiquitous, leading to the common "ye", as in 'Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'. One major reason for this was that⟨y⟩ existed in the printer'stypes thatWilliam Caxton and his contemporaries imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, while⟨Þ⟩ did not.[6] As a result, the use of ay with ane above it (
) as an abbreviation became common. It can still be seen in reprints of the 1611 edition of theKing James Version of the Bible in places such as Romans 15:29 or in theMayflower Compact. Historically, the article was never pronounced with ay sound even when it was so written.
Theindefinite article of English takes the two forms:a andan. Semantically, they can be regarded as meaning "one", usually without emphasis. They can be used only with singular countable nouns; for the possible use ofsome (orany) as an equivalent with plural and uncountable nouns, seeUse ofsome below.
An is the older form (related toone, which it also predates, cognate toDutcheen,Germanein,Gothic𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ains),Old Norseeinn, etc.).[7] The Old English wordān was derived fromProto-West Germanic*ain,[8] which was derived fromProto-Germanic*ainaz. All of these words descended fromProto-Indo-European*óynos, meaning "single".[9]
The [n] of the originalOld English indefinite articleān got graduallyassimilated before consonants in almost all dialects by the 15th century. Before vowels, the [n] survived into Modern English.
Currently, the forman is used before words starting with avowel sound, regardless of whether the word begins with a vowelletter.[10] Where the next word begins with a consonant sound,a is used. Examples:a box;an apple;anSSO (pronounced "es-es-oh");anMP3 (pronounced "em-pee-three");aHEPA filter (here, HEPA is an acronym, a series of letters pronounced as a word rather than as individual letters);an hour (theh is silent);a one-armed bandit (pronounced "won...");an $80 fee (read "an eighty-dollar fee");an herb inAmerican English (where theh is silent), buta herb in British English;a unionized worker butan un-ionized particle. Before words beginning with/ju/,an was formerly widespread, e.g.an unicorn,an eulogy, but has largely been superseded bya since the 19th century.
In older loan words of Latin or Greek provenance, initialh used to be silent in general, thus the use ofan before such words was common and has survived to some extent to recent times even when theh has been restored in pronunciation. Some speakers and writers usean before a word beginning with the sound/h/ in anunstressed syllable:an historical novel,an hotel.[11] However, this usage is now less common.
Some dialects, particularly in England (such asCockney), silence many or all initialh sounds (h-dropping), and so employan in situations where it would not be used in the standard language, likean 'elmet (standard English:a helmet).
There used to be a distinction analogous to that betweena andan for the possessive determinersmy andthy, which becamemine andthine before a vowel, as inmine eyes.[12]
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Other more or less analogous cases in different languages include theYiddish articles "a" (אַ) and "an" (אַן) (used in essentially the same manner as the English ones), theHungarian articlesa andaz (used the same way, except that they are definite articles; juncture loss, as described below, has occurred in that language too), and theprivativea- andan- prefixes, meaning "not" or "without", inGreek andSanskrit.
Botha andan are usually pronounced with aschwa:/ə/,/ən/. However, when stressed (which is rare in ordinary speech), they are normally pronounced respectively as/eɪ/ (to rhyme withday) and/æn/ (to rhyme withpan). SeeWeak and strong forms in English.
In a process calledjuncture loss, then has wandered back and forth between the indefinite article and words beginning with vowels over the history of the language, where for example what was oncea nuncle is nowan uncle. One example is the text "smot hym on the hede witha nege tool" from 1448 in thePaston Letters, meaning "smote him on the head withan edge tool".[13] Other examples includea nox foran ox anda napple foran apple. Sometimes the change has been permanent. For example,anewt was oncean ewt,a nickname was oncean ekename, whereeke means "extra" (as ineke out meaning "add to"), and in the other direction,a napron (meaning a little tablecloth, related to the wordnapkin) becamean apron, anda nadder becameanadder. The initialn inorange was also dropped through juncture loss,[14] but this happened before the word was borrowed into English.[15]
The existential determinative (ordeterminer)some is sometimes used as a functional equivalent ofa(n) with plural anduncountable nouns (also called apartitive). For example,Give me some apples,Give me some water (equivalent to the singular countable formsan apple anda glass of water). Grammatically thissome is not required; it is also possible to use zero article:Give me apples,Give me water. The use ofsome in such cases implies some limited quantity. (Compare the formsunos/unas inSpanish, which are the plural of the indefinite articleun/una.)Like the articles,some belongs to the class of "central determiners", which are mutually exclusive (so "the some boys" is ungrammatical).[16]
The contrasting use ofany in negative clauses proves thatsome ispolarity-sensitive, and occurs in positiveclauses: "I havesome objections to make", vs. "I don't haveany objections to make"; "I haveany objections to make" and "I don't havesome objections to make" are ungrammatical.[17]
Some can also have a more emphatic meaning: "some but not others" or "some but not many". For example,some people like football, while others prefer rugby, orI've got some money, but not enough to lend you any. It can also be used as anindefinite pronoun, not qualifying a noun at all (Give me some!) or followed by a prepositional phrase (I want some of your vodka); the same applies toany.
Some can also be used with singular countable nouns, as inThere is some person on the porch, which implies that the identity of the person is unknown to the speaker (which is not necessarily the case whena(n) is used). This usage is fairly informal, although singular countablesome can also be found in formal contexts:We seek some value of x such that...
Whensome is used just as an indefinite article, it is normally pronounced weakly, as[s(ə)m]. In other meanings, it is pronounced[sʌm].
In sorting titles and phrases alphabetically, articles are usually excluded from consideration, since being so common makes them more of a hindrance than a help in finding the desired item. For example,The Comedy of Errors is alphabetized beforeA Midsummer Night's Dream, becausethe anda are ignored andcomedy alphabetizes beforemidsummer. In an index, the former work might be written "Comedy of Errors, The", with the article moved to the end.
Speakers ofWest Country English may use articles in certain environments where speakers ofStandard English would not. Non-standard uses occur for example with diseases (the chicken pox,the arthritis), quantifying expressions (the both,the most), holidays (the Christmas), geographical units and institutions (the church,the county Devon), etc. The indefinite article, on the other hand, often occurs asa also before vowels.[18]
The types used by Caxton and his contemporaries originated in Holland and Belgium, and did not provide for the continuing use of elements of the Old English alphabet such as thorn <þ>, eth <ð>, and yogh <ʒ>. The substitution of visually similar typographic forms has led to some anomalies which persist to this day in the reprinting of archaic texts and the spelling of regional words. The widely misunderstood 'ye' occurs through a habit of printer's usage that originates in Caxton's time, when printers would substitute the <y> (often accompanied by a superscript <e>) in place of the thorn <þ> or the eth <ð>, both of which were used to denote both the voiced and non-voiced sounds, /ð/ and /θ/ (Anderson, D. (1969) The Art of Written Forms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, p 169)
Now only before a vowel or h, and arch[aic] or poet[ical]
