A, An or The?
Understanding Articles
The words a, an, and the are called articles, also known
as determiners. These words are used to modify nouns, pronouns, and
words acting as nouns. They may also be separated from the noun or
pronoun by one or more adjectives.
Examples: the ball
the big red ball
Sometimes these little words can cause a lot of confusion! They can
especially cause added confusion for students for whom English is
a second language. Since some languages don’t use articles,
whereas others use an article for every noun, it can get rather tricky
deciding when to use or what to use. Here are a few rules you must
keep in mind to better understand the appropriate use of these words.
Articles are classified as either indefinite or definite.
A and an are called indefinite articles and the is called the definite
article.
Indefinite |
Definite |
| a cat (any cat) |
the cat (any specific cat, the cat in the tree) |
| A magazine (any magazine) |
the magazine (the magazine on the shelf) |
Next, this handout breaks into three pages that further discuss
indefinite
articles,
definite
articles, and
exceptions
to the use of articles.
- Indefinite Articles: a and an
- Definite Article: the
- Exceptions: No Articles
Additionally, you can test your understanding with
Academic
Center Exercises for Articles.
Other
resources about articles
are also available.
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