English articles
Encyclopedia
The articles
are words that combine with a noun to indicate the degree of definiteness (specificity) of the reference being made by the noun. The articles in English include the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an (and sometimes some). The use of the definite article indicates that the speaker assumes the listener knows the identity of the noun, because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in the same sentence or an earlier sentence. The use of an indefinite article indicates that the speaker assumes the listener does not know the identity of the noun.
, noun
s must in most cases be preceded by an article
that specifies the presence or absence of definiteness
of the noun. The definite article is the in all cases other than generic references, which use the zero article (i.e., the absence of an article), while indefiniteness is expressed with a or an for singular
nouns or the zero article for plural or non-count nouns.
The cells in the table can be exemplified as follows:
English grammar requires that the appropriate article, if any, be used with each noun, with several exceptions:
In most cases, the article is the first word of its noun phrase
, preceding all other adjectives. There are only a few exceptions—e.g., quite a story, too great a loss, all the time, such a nice man.
In alphabetizing titles and phrases, articles are usually excluded from consideration, since being so common makes them more of a hindrance than a help in finding a desired item. For example, The Comedy of Errors is alphabetized before A Midsummer Night's Dream, because the and a are ignored and comedy alphabetizes before midsummer. In an index, the former work might be written "Comedy of Errors, The", with the article moved to the end.
In contexts where concision is especially valued, such as headline
s, signs, labels, and notes, articles are often omitted along with certain other function word
s. For example, rather than The mayor was attacked, a newspaper headline would say just Mayor attacked.
is the, denoting person(s) or thing(s) already mentioned, under discussion, implied, or familiar. It is often used as the very first part of a noun phrase
.
The article "the" is used with singular count nouns (the car) and with singular uncountable nouns
(the coffee) and plural nouns (the cars) when both the speaker and hearer would know the identity of the thing or idea already.
However, in English, unlike in some other languages such as French
, the definite article is omitted before familiar but intangible concepts such as "happiness": Happiness is contagious is correct, whereas *The happiness is contagious is not unless a very specific example of happiness is referred to. The is also omitted when the noun refers to a generic mass object (Coffee grows in Colombia) or to a generic collection of countable objects (Cars have accelerators).
/ð/. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, "the" may be pronounced /ði/ before words beginning with vowel sounds, before proper nouns, or to add emphasis
. However, often in practice the pronunciation with a schwa is retained even before a vowel sound or a proper noun.
In some Northern England dialect
s of English, the is pronounced [t̪ə] (with a dental t
) or as a glottal stop
, usually written in eye dialect
as; in some dialects it reduces to nothing. This is known as definite article reduction
.
In dialects that do not have the voiced dental fricative /ð/, the is pronounced with the voiced dental plosive
, as in /d̪ə/ or /d̪iː/).
system. Old English had a definite article se, in the masculine gender
, seo (feminine), and þæt
(neuter). In Middle English
these had all merged into þe, the ancestor of the Modern English
word the.
In Middle English, the (þe) was frequently abbreviated as a þ with a small e above it, similar to the abbreviation for that, which was a þ with a small t above it. During the latter Middle English
and Early Modern English
periods, the letter Thorn
(þ) in its common script, or cursive
, form came to resemble a y shape. As such the use of a y with an e above it as an abbreviation became common. This can still be seen in reprints of the 1611 edition of the King James Version of the Bible
in places such as Romans 15:29, or in the Mayflower Compact
. Historically the article was never pronounced with a y sound, even when so written, although the modern, 19th and 20th century pseudo-archaic usage such as "Ye Olde
Englishe Tea Shoppe" can be pronounced with a y sound.
(or the Ukraine), most style guides have advised dropping the article, in part because the Ukrainian Government was concerned about a similar issue involving prepositions. Another example is Argentina
, which is now more usual than 'the Argentine', which is old fashioned, although others continue, such as The Bronx
and The Hague
.
The definite article is always used for countries whose names are descriptions of the form of the state rather than being purely geographical; for example, the United States
, the Soviet Union
, and the Czech Republic
.
The U.S. Department of State and the CIA World Factbook
show the definite article with only two countries: The Bahamas
and The Gambia
. Although in title, these references do not include the definite article for the Netherlands
, in the text description the name of the country is never used without it.
in the English language
and can also represent the number one. An is the older form (related to one, cognate to German
ein; etc.), now used before words starting with a vowel
sound, regardless of whether the word begins with a vowel letter
. Examples: a light-water reactor; a sanitary sewer overflow; an SSO
; a HEPA
filter (because HEPA is pronounced as a word rather than as letters); an hour; a ewe; a one-armed bandit; an heir; a unicorn
(begins with 'yu', a consonant sound).
gives such examples as smot hym on the hede with a nege tool from 1448 for smote him on the head with an edge tool and a nox for an ox and a napple for an apple. Sometimes the change has been permanent. For example, a newt
was once an ewt (earlier euft and eft), a nickname was once an eke-name, where eke means "extra" (as in eke out meaning "add to"), and in the other direction, "a napron" became "an apron" and "a naddre" became "an adder." "Napron" itself meant "little tablecloth" and is related to the word "napkin". An oft-cited but inaccurate example is an orange: despite what is often claimed, English never used a norange. Although the initial n was in fact lost through juncture loss, this happened before the word was borrowed in English (see orange (word)
).
(momentary silent pause) that is otherwise required between "a" and a following word. For example, "an X-ray
" is less awkward to pronounce than "a X-ray," which has a glottal stop between "a" and "X-ray". The following paragraphs are spelling rules for "an" that can be used if the phonetic rule is not understood.
The form "an" is always prescribed before words beginning with a silent h, such as "honorable", "heir", "hour", and, in American English, "herb". Some British dialects (for example, Cockney
) silence all initial hs (h-dropping) and so employ "an" all the time: e.g., "an 'elmet". The article "an" is sometimes seen in such phrases as "an historic", "an heroic" and "an hotel of excellence" in both British and American usage, although usually violating the phonetic rule in such cases. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
allows "both a and an are used in writing a historic an historic".
An analogous distinction to that of "a" and "an" was once present for possessive determiners
as well. For example, "my" and "thy" became "mine" and "thine" before a vowel, as in "mine eyes". This usage is now largely obsolete.
The appearance of an or a in front of words beginning with h is not limited to stress. Sometimes there is a historical root as well. Words that may have had a route into English via French (where all hs are unpronounced) may have an to avoid an unusual pronunciation. This never applied to words of Germanic origin, as the hs would be pronounced and a used.
Further, some words starting with vowels may have a preceding a because they are pronounced as if beginning with an initial consonant. "Ewe" and "user" have a preceding a because they are pronounced with an initial y consonant sound. "One-eyed pirate" also has a preceding a because it is pronounced with an initial w consonant sound.
Usually an is pronounced to rhyme with "Stan", as /æn/. However, in rapid speech the vowel is often degraded to a schwa: /ən/.
A and an are also used to express a proportional relationship, such as "a dollar a day" or "$150 an ounce" or "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play", although historically this use of "a" and "an" does not come from the same word as the articles.
The mathematically-minded might heed H. S. Wall
's reminder that the statement "I have a son" does not necessarily imply that "I have exactly one son" or that "I have only sons". In other words, "The little words count."
However, some also serves as a quantifier rather than as a plural article, as in "There are some apples there, but not many." As a result, the meaning intended by the speaker may be unintentionally or even deliberately unclear, or the speaker could intend both meanings simultaneously: "I see some cars" could have the indefinite meaning in "I see some cars (but I don't know whose)" or the quantificational meaning in "I see some cars (but not a lot of them)".
However, some before a mass noun
(a singular noun referring to a non-discrete undivided entity) always has a partitive
meaning: for example, in I'll have some coffee, some means a subset of all coffee.
, another Germanic language, also employs "a" (אַ) and "an" (אַן) in essentially the same manner.
In Hungarian
, a and az are used the same way, except that in Hungarian, a(z) is the definite article. Juncture loss occurred in this case as well, since az was the only article in use in 16th century Hungarian (e.g. in the poetry of Bálint Balassa).
In Greek
and Sanskrit
, a- and an-
, meaning "not" or "without", are root words
, cognate with Latin in- (when used as a negative) and English un-, meaning without.
Italian
has many articles (8 + juncture loss) basically expressing the same ideas of definite and indefinite as English ones. The article the corresponds to il, lo, la, i, gli or le indifferently (remembering that Italian has masculine and feminine nouns, so that it is not indifferent to join any one of those articles with any Italian noun, indiscriminately) and the English articles a / an corresponds to Italian un or una (again, the masculine / feminine distinction must be taken into account). Moreover, no geographical rule applies to any of the Italian articles corresponding to the article the, so that, for example, it is correct to say la Germania which means Germany, in English.
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
are words that combine with a noun to indicate the degree of definiteness (specificity) of the reference being made by the noun. The articles in English include the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an (and sometimes some). The use of the definite article indicates that the speaker assumes the listener knows the identity of the noun, because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in the same sentence or an earlier sentence. The use of an indefinite article indicates that the speaker assumes the listener does not know the identity of the noun.
General usage
In EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s must in most cases be preceded by an article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
that specifies the presence or absence of definiteness
Definiteness
In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
of the noun. The definite article is the in all cases other than generic references, which use the zero article (i.e., the absence of an article), while indefiniteness is expressed with a or an for singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
nouns or the zero article for plural or non-count nouns.
| singular countable | plural or non-count | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | before a vowel sound | an | (none) |
| before a consonant sound | a | ||
| definite | generic | N/A | (none) |
| non-generic | the | the | |
The cells in the table can be exemplified as follows:
- indefinite singular countable
- before a vowel sound: I saw an ear, I received an honor
- before a consonant sound: I have a car
- indefinite plural: I saw cars
- indefinite non-count: I drink coffee
- definite generic plural: Cars have accelerators
- definite generic non-count: Happiness is contagious
- definite non-generic singular: I see the car
- definite non-generic plural: I see the cars
- definite non-generic non-count: I like the coffee in that restaurant
English grammar requires that the appropriate article, if any, be used with each noun, with several exceptions:
- most proper nounProper nounA proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity , as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities —for example, city, planet, person or corporation)...
s
- Rome was ruled by Augustus.
- pronounPronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s and noun phraseNoun phraseIn grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
s
- pronoun
- Nobody liked what he said.
- nouns with another non-number determiner such as this, each, my, or no:
- My sister wrote this song about America's history.
In most cases, the article is the first word of its noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
, preceding all other adjectives. There are only a few exceptions—e.g., quite a story, too great a loss, all the time, such a nice man.
- The little old red bag held a very big surprise.
In alphabetizing titles and phrases, articles are usually excluded from consideration, since being so common makes them more of a hindrance than a help in finding a desired item. For example, The Comedy of Errors is alphabetized before A Midsummer Night's Dream, because the and a are ignored and comedy alphabetizes before midsummer. In an index, the former work might be written "Comedy of Errors, The", with the article moved to the end.
In contexts where concision is especially valued, such as headline
Headline
The headline is the text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it.It is sometimes termed a news hed, a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a...
s, signs, labels, and notes, articles are often omitted along with certain other function word
Function word
Function words are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker...
s. For example, rather than The mayor was attacked, a newspaper headline would say just Mayor attacked.
Definite article
The definite article in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is the, denoting person(s) or thing(s) already mentioned, under discussion, implied, or familiar. It is often used as the very first part of a noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
.
The article "the" is used with singular count nouns (the car) and with singular uncountable nouns
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
(the coffee) and plural nouns (the cars) when both the speaker and hearer would know the identity of the thing or idea already.
However, in English, unlike in some other languages such as French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, the definite article is omitted before familiar but intangible concepts such as "happiness": Happiness is contagious is correct, whereas *The happiness is contagious is not unless a very specific example of happiness is referred to. The is also omitted when the noun refers to a generic mass object (Coffee grows in Colombia) or to a generic collection of countable objects (Cars have accelerators).
Pronunciation
In most dialects "the" is pronounced as /ðə/ the voiced dental fricativeVoiced dental fricative
The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound, eth, is . The symbol was taken from the Old English letter eth, which could stand for either a voiced or unvoiced...
/ð/. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, "the" may be pronounced /ði/ before words beginning with vowel sounds, before proper nouns, or to add emphasis
Emphasis
Emphasis or emphatic may refer to:* Emphasis , intentional alteration of the amplitude-vs.-frequency characteristics of the signal to reduce adverse effects of noise...
. However, often in practice the pronunciation with a schwa is retained even before a vowel sound or a proper noun.
In some Northern England dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of English, the is pronounced [t̪ə] (with a dental t
Voiceless dental plosive
The voiceless dental plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t_d...
) or as a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
, usually written in eye dialect
Eye dialect
Eye dialect is the use of non-standard spelling for speech to draw attention to pronunciation. The term was originally coined by George P. Krapp to refer to the literary technique of using non-standard spelling that implies a pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard, such as...
as
Definite article reduction
Definite Article Reduction is the term used in recent linguistic work to refer to the use of vowel-less forms of the definite article the in Northern dialects of English English, for example in the Yorkshire dialect and accent...
.
In dialects that do not have the voiced dental fricative /ð/,
Voiced dental plosive
The voiced dental plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is...
, as in /d̪ə/ or /d̪iː/).
Etymology
The and that are common developments from the same Old EnglishOld English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
system. Old English had a definite article se, in the masculine gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, seo (feminine), and þæt
That
The word that is used in the English language for several grammatical purposes:* to introduce a restrictive relative clause * as a demonstrative pronoun...
(neuter). In Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
these had all merged into þe, the ancestor of the Modern English
Modern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...
word the.
In Middle English, the (þe) was frequently abbreviated as a þ with a small e above it, similar to the abbreviation for that, which was a þ with a small t above it. During the latter Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
and Early Modern English
Early Modern English
Early Modern English is the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period to 1650. Thus, the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English...
periods, the letter Thorn
Thorn (letter)
Thorn or þorn , is a letter in the Old English, Old Norse, and Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with the digraph th. The letter originated from the rune in the Elder Fuþark, called thorn in the...
(þ) in its common script, or cursive
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...
, form came to resemble a y shape. As such the use of a y with an e above it as an abbreviation became common. This can still be seen in reprints of the 1611 edition of the King James Version of the Bible
King James Version of the Bible
The Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible or KJV, is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611...
in places such as Romans 15:29, or in the Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
. Historically the article was never pronounced with a y sound, even when so written, although the modern, 19th and 20th century pseudo-archaic usage such as "Ye Olde
Ye Olde
Ye Olde is a pseudo-Early Modern English stock prefix, used anachronistically, suggestive of a Deep England feel.A typical example would be Ye Olde English Pubbe or similar names of theme pubs....
Englishe Tea Shoppe" can be pronounced with a y sound.
Geographic uses
In English most cities and countries never take the definite article, but there are many that do. It is commonly used with many country names that derive from names of island groups (the Philippines), mountain ranges (the Lebanon), deserts (the Sudan), seas, rivers and geographic regions (the Middle East). Such use is declining, but for some countries it remains common. Since the independence of UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(or the Ukraine), most style guides have advised dropping the article, in part because the Ukrainian Government was concerned about a similar issue involving prepositions. Another example is Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, which is now more usual than 'the Argentine', which is old fashioned, although others continue, such as The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
and The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
The definite article is always used for countries whose names are descriptions of the form of the state rather than being purely geographical; for example, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
The U.S. Department of State and the CIA World Factbook
The World Factbook
The World Factbook is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official paper copy version is available from the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office...
show the definite article with only two countries: The Bahamas
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
and The Gambia
The Gambia
The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
. Although in title, these references do not include the definite article for the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, in the text description the name of the country is never used without it.
Indefinite article
"A" and "an" function as the indefinite forms of the grammatical articleArticle (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and can also represent the number one. An is the older form (related to one, cognate to German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
ein; etc.), now used before words starting with a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
sound, regardless of whether the word begins with a vowel letter
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
. Examples: a light-water reactor; a sanitary sewer overflow; an SSO
Sanitary sewer overflow
Sanitary sewer overflow is a condition whereby untreated sewage is discharged into the environment prior to reaching treatment facilities thereby escaping wastewater treatment. When caused by rainfall it is also known as wet weather overflow. It is primarily meaningful in developed countries,...
; a HEPA
HEPA
High-Efficiency Particulate Air or HEPA is a type of air filter. Filters that are awarded the HEPA accolade are used in various locations, whether in medical facilities, automotive vehicles, airplanes, home filters, or wherever very pure air is sought. The filter must satisfy certain standards of...
filter (because HEPA is pronounced as a word rather than as letters); an hour; a ewe; a one-armed bandit; an heir; a unicorn
Unicorn
The unicorn is a legendary animal from European folklore that resembles a white horse with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead, and sometimes a goat's beard...
(begins with 'yu', a consonant sound).
Juncture loss
In a process called juncture loss, the n has wandered back and forth between words beginning with vowels over the history of the language, where sometimes it would be a nuncle and is now an uncle. The Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
gives such examples as smot hym on the hede with a nege tool from 1448 for smote him on the head with an edge tool and a nox for an ox and a napple for an apple. Sometimes the change has been permanent. For example, a newt
Newt
A newt is an aquatic amphibian of the family Salamandridae, although not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts. Newts are classified in the subfamily Pleurodelinae of the family Salamandridae, and are found in North America, Europe and Asia...
was once an ewt (earlier euft and eft), a nickname was once an eke-name, where eke means "extra" (as in eke out meaning "add to"), and in the other direction, "a napron" became "an apron" and "a naddre" became "an adder." "Napron" itself meant "little tablecloth" and is related to the word "napkin". An oft-cited but inaccurate example is an orange: despite what is often claimed, English never used a norange. Although the initial n was in fact lost through juncture loss, this happened before the word was borrowed in English (see orange (word)
Orange (word)
The word orange is both a noun and an adjective in the English language. In both cases, it refers primarily to the orange fruit and the colour orange, but has many other derivative meanings....
).
Discrimination between
a and an The choice of "a" or "an" is determined by phonetic rules rather than by spelling convention. "An" is employed in speech to remove the awkward glottal stopGlottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
(momentary silent pause) that is otherwise required between "a" and a following word. For example, "an X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
" is less awkward to pronounce than "a X-ray," which has a glottal stop between "a" and "X-ray". The following paragraphs are spelling rules for "an" that can be used if the phonetic rule is not understood.
The form "an" is always prescribed before words beginning with a silent h, such as "honorable", "heir", "hour", and, in American English, "herb". Some British dialects (for example, Cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
) silence all initial hs (h-dropping) and so employ "an" all the time: e.g., "an 'elmet". The article "an" is sometimes seen in such phrases as "an historic", "an heroic" and "an hotel of excellence" in both British and American usage, although usually violating the phonetic rule in such cases. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
Webster's Dictionary
Webster's Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century, and also to numerous unrelated dictionaries that added Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term is a genericized trademark in the U.S.A...
allows "both a and an are used in writing a historic an historic".
An analogous distinction to that of "a" and "an" was once present for possessive determiners
Possessive adjective
Possessive adjectives, also known as possessive determiners, are a part of speech that modifies a noun by attributing possession to someone or something...
as well. For example, "my" and "thy" became "mine" and "thine" before a vowel, as in "mine eyes". This usage is now largely obsolete.
The appearance of an or a in front of words beginning with h is not limited to stress. Sometimes there is a historical root as well. Words that may have had a route into English via French (where all hs are unpronounced) may have an to avoid an unusual pronunciation. This never applied to words of Germanic origin, as the hs would be pronounced and a used.
Further, some words starting with vowels may have a preceding a because they are pronounced as if beginning with an initial consonant. "Ewe" and "user" have a preceding a because they are pronounced with an initial y consonant sound. "One-eyed pirate" also has a preceding a because it is pronounced with an initial w consonant sound.
Pronunciation of a and an
Usually a is pronounced as a schwa: /ə/. However, when the meaning of indefiniteness is combined with the meaning as the quantifier "one", the latter can be emphasized by pronouncing a as the so-called long a: /eɪ/.Usually an is pronounced to rhyme with "Stan", as /æn/. However, in rapid speech the vowel is often degraded to a schwa: /ən/.
Representing the number one
In addition to serving as an article, a and an are also used as synonyms for the number one, as in "make a wish", "a hundred". An was originally an unstressed form of the number ān 'one'.A and an are also used to express a proportional relationship, such as "a dollar a day" or "$150 an ounce" or "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play", although historically this use of "a" and "an" does not come from the same word as the articles.
The mathematically-minded might heed H. S. Wall
Hubert Stanley Wall
Hubert Stanley Wall was an American mathematician who worked primarily in the field of continued fractions. He is also known as one of the leading proponents of the Moore method of teaching....
's reminder that the statement "I have a son" does not necessarily imply that "I have exactly one son" or that "I have only sons". In other words, "The little words count."
As a plural
The word some is used as a functional plural of a/an. "An apple" always means one indefinite 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 'uno/una' ("one") is completely indistinguishable from the unit number, but 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." As a result, the meaning intended by the speaker may be unintentionally or even deliberately unclear, or the speaker could intend both meanings simultaneously: "I see some cars" could have the indefinite meaning in "I see some cars (but I don't know whose)" or the quantificational meaning in "I see some cars (but not a lot of them)".
As a singular
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.However, some before a mass noun
Mass noun
In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
(a singular noun referring to a non-discrete undivided entity) always has a partitive
Partitive
In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...
meaning: for example, in I'll have some coffee, some means a subset of all coffee.
Similarities in other languages
YiddishYiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
, another Germanic language, also employs "a" (אַ) and "an" (אַן) in essentially the same manner.
In Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, a and az are used the same way, except that in Hungarian, a(z) is the definite article. Juncture loss occurred in this case as well, since az was the only article in use in 16th century Hungarian (e.g. in the poetry of Bálint Balassa).
In Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, a- and an-
Privative a
In Ancient Greek grammar, privative a is the prefix a- that expresses negation or absence . It is derived from a Proto-Indo-European syllabic nasal *, the zero ablaut grade of the negation *ne, i.e. /n/ used as a vowel...
, meaning "not" or "without", are root words
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
, cognate with Latin in- (when used as a negative) and English un-, meaning without.
Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
has many articles (8 + juncture loss) basically expressing the same ideas of definite and indefinite as English ones. The article the corresponds to il, lo, la, i, gli or le indifferently (remembering that Italian has masculine and feminine nouns, so that it is not indifferent to join any one of those articles with any Italian noun, indiscriminately) and the English articles a / an corresponds to Italian un or una (again, the masculine / feminine distinction must be taken into account). Moreover, no geographical rule applies to any of the Italian articles corresponding to the article the, so that, for example, it is correct to say la Germania which means Germany, in English.
External links
- Vietnamese learners mastering english articles
- "The Definite Article: Acknowledging 'The' in Index Entries", Glenda Browne, The Indexer, vol. 22, no. 3 April 2001, pp. 119–22.
- Low MH 2005: "The Phenomenon of the Word THE in English — discourse functions and distribution patterns" — a dissertation that surveys the use of the word 'the' in English text.
- When Do You Use Articles: A, An, The
- Etymology of the word THE on the Online Etymology Dictionary