# English in Use/Articles

An **article** is the word *the*, *an*, or *a*, which we put before
nouns to limit their signification: as, *the air, the stars, an island,
a ship*.

The articles can seldom be put one for the other, without gross
impropriety; and of course either is to be preferred to the other, as it
better suits the sense: as,

-   \"The violation of this rule never fails to hurt and displease a
    reader.\"---Blair\'s Lectures, p. 107.
-   Say, \"A violation of this rule never fails to displease the
    reader.\"

## Nouns without any article

A common noun, when taken in its widest sense, usually admits no
article: as,

-   \"A candid temper is proper for man; that is, for all
    mankind.\"---Murray.

Nouns without any article, or other definitive, are often used in a
sense indefinitely partitive: as,

-   \"He took bread, and gave thanks.\"---Acts.
-   That is, \"Some bread.\"
-   \"To buy food are your servants come.\"---Genesis.
-   That is, \"Some food.\"
-   \"There are fishes that have wings, and are not strangers to the
    airy region.\"---Locke\'s Essay, p. 322.
-   That is, \"Some fishes.\"
-   Words in which nothing but the mere being of anything is implied,
    are used without articles: as, \'This is not beer, but water;\'
    \'This is not brass, but steel.\'---Dr. Johnson\'s Gram., p. 5.

## Indefinite articles

The indefinite article is *an* or *a*, which denotes one thing of a
kind, but not any particular one: as, *a boy, an orange*.

*An* is used in preference to a, whenever the following word begins with
a vowel sound: as, *an art, an end, an heir, an inch, an ounce, an hour,
an urn*.

*A* is used in preference to *an*, whenever the following word begins
with a consonant sound: as, *a man, a house, a wonder, a one, a yew, a
use, a ewer, a European car*.

The consonant sounds of *w* and *y*, even when expressed by other
letters, require *a* and not *an* before them: as,

-   \"In an epic poem, or a poem upon an elevated subject, a writer
    ought to avoid raising a simile on a low image.\"---Ld. Kames.

*An* or *a* before the genus, may refer to a whole species; and the
before the species, may denote that whole species emphatically: as,

-   \"A certain bird is termed the cuckoo, from the sound which it
    emits.\"---Blair.

But *an* or *a* is commonly used to denote individuals as unknown, or as
not specially distinguished from others: as,

-   \"I see an object pass by, which I never saw till now; and I say,
    \'There goes a beggar with a long beard.\'\"---Harris.

The article *an* or *a* implies unity, or one, and of course belongs to
nouns of the singular number only: as, *a man, an old man, a good boy*.

*An* or *a* sometimes gives a collective meaning to a numeral, when the
noun following is plural: as, *a few days, a hundred men, one hundred
pounds sterling*.

## Definite articles

The definite article is *the*, which denotes some particular thing or
things: as, *the boy, the oranges*.

The definite article is commonly used to denote individuals as known, or
as specially distinguished from others: as,

-   \"The man departs, and returns a week after; and I say, \'There goes
    the beggar with the long beard.\'\"---Id.

The article *the* is applied to nouns of either number: as, *the man,
the men; the good boy, the good boys*.

The is commonly required before adjectives that are used by ellipsis as
nouns: as,

-   \"The young are slaves to novelty; the old, to custom.\"---Ld.
    Kames.

Pronunciation of \"the\" all depends on the word it\'s referring to and
whether that word starts with a vowel sound or a consonant sound. When
the word begins with a vowel sound we use the long \"the\" (thee). For
example: The (thee) Apple, the (thee hOur). When the word begins with a
consonant sound we use the short \"the\" (thuh). For example: The (thuh)
Banana, the (thuh) University.

Sometime\'s \"the\" is used to emphasize a noun, especially when that
noun is unique. When writing this particular use of \"the\" it is almost
always written in Italics *\"the\"*.

For Example: \"I saw the Queen last week.\" \"What?! *The* (thee) Queen?
As in Queen Elizabeth the 2nd?\" \"Yes, Queen Elizabeth.\"

## General rules

Articles should be inserted as often as the sense requires them: as,

-   \"Repeat the preterit and \[the\] past participle of the verb to
    abide.\"---Merchant\'s American School Grammar, p. 66.

Needless articles should be omitted; they seldom fail to pervert the
sense: as,

-   \"The Rhine, the Danube, the Tanais, the Po, the Volga, the Ganges,
    like many hundreds of similar names, rose not from any obscure
    jargon or irrational dialect.\"---Dr. Murray\'s Hist. of Europ.
    Lang., Vol. i, p. 327.

## A short syntax

Articles relate to the nouns which they limit, as \"The blind beggar,\"
except the following cases: the comparative or the superlative degree,
as \"The mightiest,\" and an unstressed numeral, as \"A hundred men.\"

## References

-   A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain
    English grammar \"The Grammar of English
    Grammars\" by Goold Brown,
    1851.


