Definite article
A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one (or
ones) identifiable to the listener. It may be something that the speaker
has already mentioned, or it may be something uniquely specified. The
definite article in English, for both singular and plural nouns, is
the.
- The children know the fastest way home.
The sentence above refers to specific children and a specific way
home; it contrasts with the much more general observation that:
- Children know the fastest way home.
The latter sentence refers to children in general, perhaps all or most of them. Likewise,
- Give me the book.
refers to a specific book whose identity is known or obvious to the listener; as such it has a markedly different meaning from
- Give me a book.
which does not specify what book is to be given. The definite article
can also be used in English to indicate a specific class among other
classes:
- The cabbage white butterfly lays its eggs on members of the Brassica genus.
The definite article is sometimes also used with
proper names, which are already specified by definition (there
is just one of them). For example:
the Amazon, the Hebrides. In these cases, the definite article is strictly speaking superfluous. Some languages also use definite articles with
personal names. For example, such use is standard in
Portuguese:
a Maria, literally: "the Maria". It also occurs colloquially in
Spanish,
German and other languages, and is sometimes heard in Italian. In
Hungary it is considered to be
Germanism.
Indefinite article
An
indefinite article indicates that its noun is not a
particular one (or ones) identifiable to the listener. It may be
something that the speaker is mentioning for the first time, or its
precise identity may be irrelevant or hypothetical, or the speaker may
be making a general statement about any such thing. English uses
a/an, from the Old English forms of the number 'one', as its primary indefinite article. The form
an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound (even if spelled with an initial consonant, as in
an hour), and
a before words that begin with a consonant sound (even if spelled with a vowel, as in
a European).
- She had a house so large that an elephant would get lost without a map.
Before some words beginning with a pronounced (not silent)
h in an unstressed first syllable, such as
hallucination,
hilarious,
historic(al),
horrendous, and
horrific, some (especially older) British writers prefer to use
an over
a (
an historical event, etc.).
[3] An is also preferred before
hotel by some writers of British English (probably reflecting the relatively recent adoption of the word from French, where the
h is not pronounced).
[4] The use of "an" before words beginning with an unstressed "h" is more common generally in British English than American.
[4] American writers normally use
a in all these cases, although there are occasional uses of
an historic(al) in American English.
[5] According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, such use is increasingly rare in British English too.
[3] Unlike British English, American English typically uses
an before
herb, since the
h
in this word is silent for most Americans. The correct usage in respect
of the term "hereditary peer" was the subject of an amendment debated
in the UK Parliament.
[6]
The word
some is used as a functional plural of
a/an. "An apple" never means more than one apple. "Give me
some
apples" indicates more than one is desired but without specifying a
quantity. This finds comparison in Spanish, where the singular
indefinite article 'un/una' ("one") is completely indistinguishable from
the unit number, except where it has a plural form ('unos/unas'):
Dame una manzana" ("Give me an apple") > "Dame
unas manzanas" ("Give me some apples"). However,
some also serves as a quantifier rather than as a plural article, as in "There are
some apples there, but not many."
Some also serves as a singular indefinite article, as in "There is
some person on the porch". This usage differs from the usage of
a(n) in that
some indicates that the identity of the noun is unknown to both the listener and the speaker, while
a(n) indicates that the identity is unknown to the listener without specifying whether or not it is known to the speaker. Thus
There is some person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to both the listener and the speaker, while
There is a person on the porch indicates indefiniteness to the listener but gives no information as to whether the speaker knows the person's identity