Everything English

An article is a word that comes before a noun as a determiner. In the English language, the article indicates the definitiveness of a noun. The English language uses the following three articles: “the,” “a,” and “an.” These articles can be categorized into two types: definite articles (“the”) and indefinite articles (“a/an”). Definite articles (i.e., “the”) are used to indicate a specific individual or thing, whereas indefinite articles (i.e., “a/an”) are used to indicate a member of a class or group. For example, if I say, “Let’s go to the restaurant,” I am indicating that we should go to a specific restaurant. However, if I say, “Let’s go to a restaurant,” I am indicating that we could go to any restaurant. As another example, I could say, “My sister wants a blue sweater for Christmas.” In this case, my sister wants any blue sweater. However, I could say, “My sister wants the blue sweater shown in that advertisement.” In this case, I am specifying that my sister wants one particular sweater.

To learn about the rules surrounding the use of “a” versus “an,” see the blog post entitled “A” versus “An.”