| The articles that we'll address in this guide
are a/an and the. Strictly
speaking, a/an and the are
usually considered the only articles of English. They're part
of a larger class of words called determiners. |
| |
| When we use an article, we put it at the beginning
of a 'noun idea', which is a phrase based on a noun, possibly
with adverbs and adjectives before it, as in "the very big,
brown baboon". We don't use an article when a possessive word
begins the noun idea, as in "my big, brown baboon" or "Betsy's
big, brown baboon", nor when another determiner like this
or that is used (as in "Look at that big, brown
baboon!"). |
| |
| In general, a/an is for unspecific
singular nouns, and the is for specific ones.
But in reality, usage is more complex, as we'll explore shortly. |
| |
| Note: Some and any
are often used when discussing a noun's existence ("Do you have
any centipedes? Yes, I have some centipedes.") or when offering
in the partitive case ("Would you like some poison?"); these
are generally learned during the Elementary level. Strictly
speaking, some and any are
classified as quantifiers. |
| |
| The word some can also be
used for unspecific plural and uncountable nouns much like a/an
is used for unspecific singular nouns ("I saw some people standing
in a tree last night."), though we won't dwell on that here. |
| |
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