Article, in grammar, is the name given to one of three words–a, an, and the. They are classified as determiners and sometimes considered a separate part of speech. Determiners are used before nouns. They place limits on the noun rather than adding description.
The definite article
is the word the. Speakers and writers use the before a noun when they believe their audience knows the identity of the noun that follows. The identity of the noun may be known because it refers to a unique person, place, object, action, quality, or idea. For example, in the sentence “She visited the Statue of Liberty,” the Statue of Liberty refers to a unique object. The identity of the noun may also have been stated or may somehow have been made clear. From the sentence “Nancy bought two TV sets and a radio but had to return the TVs,” the TVs clearly refers to the two that Nancy bought. “Hand me the hammer” makes sense only if the listener knows which hammer. The definite article can also be used with proper names to distinguish one person from others that may have the same name: “Is that the Michael Jordan?”
The indefinite articles
are a and an. They are only used before singular nouns. Writers and speakers use the indefinite article when they believe their audience does not know the identity of the following noun. In the sentence “Mary handed the book to a boy,” the writer does not believe that the reader knows which boy.
The article an is used before words beginning with a vowel sound, as in an elephant. It is also correct to say an heir, because the h at the beginning of heir is silent. However, a is used in the expression a one-sided argument because one begins with a w sound.
General use of articles.
Sometimes articles refer to an entire class of objects instead of particular ones. For example, it is possible to talk of elephants in general in each of the following ways: “The elephant has long tusks.” “An elephant has long tusks.” “Elephants have long tusks.” However, when the idea of the sentence only applies to an entire class, a and an cannot be used. For this reason, one cannot say “An elephant is in danger of extinction.”
Usage of articles is often inconsistent. For example, we say to school but to the library. Such nouns as flour and milk, which are thought of collectively, do not require articles: “Milk is good for you.”
Using or omitting the article often changes the meaning of a sentence. The following three sentences are examples: “A revolution changed the government.” “The revolution changed the government.” “Revolution changed the government.” The first sentence mentions a revolution, but does not specify any particular one. The second sentence refers to a particular revolution previously mentioned or known to the reader. The third sentence refers to revolution as a process. Unnecessary articles often appear after such expressions as kind of or sort of. For example, that kind of hat, not that kind of a hat, is standard usage.
