Articles in Grammar
Articles in Grammar
Table of Contents
What Is An Article?
Different Types Of Article
o Definite Article
o Indefinite Article
How to Use Articles in English Grammar? (A An The)
o Rules For Using An Article
o Indefinite Articles | A and An
o Definite Article | The
o When Not to Use an English Article
Articles with Countable and Uncountable Nouns
What Is An Article?
What Is An Article in English? A An The
In English grammar, there are two different types of article, the definite article
and the indefinite article. In the most simple terms an article is a way of letting
the listener or speaker know that a noun is either unspecific or specific. The
words which are used as articles are the, an and a.
Quick note:
In many languages, articles are a special part of speech which cannot be easily
combined with other parts of speech.
Article Grammar: A An The – Image 1
Definite Article
The best way to remember what a definite article is, is to remember that the
word ‘the’ is the definite article. As we have briefly seen in our earlier
examples, the word the can be used to demonstrate that the speaker is
referring to something specific and not talking in a general sense.
Rule #1. We mentioned that depending on whether the noun begins with a
consonant or a vowel will depend on which form of the indefinite article you
will use, however like many times in the English language, there are some
exceptions to this rule. The best example of this is with the word ‘honour’
which begins with a consonant, however this letter is not pronounced so you
would not use the word ‘a’ in this instance, you would say:
If you were to say the following sentence, it would not make any sense.
Rule #5. Finally, there may be times where an article can be left out, as it is not
necessary to refer to the noun. A good example of this would be the sentence
‘I like to play football.’ Whilst football is a noun, using the before it would be
unnecessary and so the article is not included.
Deciding which indefinite article to place in front of a word depends upon the
initial sound of the word, not the first letter of the word.
The definite article ‘the’ means this, that. It answers the question which one?.
It can be used with both singular and plural nouns. A noun is first
introduced with the indefinite article and the definite article is used to refer
to it again.
2. We do not use an article when talking about sports and games.
3. Do not use article before the names of countries unless the name suggests
that the country is made up of smaller units or constituent parts.
5. Do not use article before the names of railway stations when they are also
place names.