Articles – a, an, the

An article is a major concept of language learning. In English an article is considered as an adjective that provides some valuable information about a noun in a sentence. In many other different languages an article is considered as a part of speech. An article can be classified based on definite and indefinite characteristics. These are called definite article and indefinite article.

Definite Article

A definite article is that which defines that a noun is particular and has something definitely addressed. Definite article is used for nouns that have been already used in a speech or for nouns that are uniquely specified. In the English language, there is only one definite article ‘the’. Definite article ‘the’ is used for both singulars and plural nouns. For example: Give me a Barbie doll. Give me the Barbie doll. In the second sentence, a specific Barbie doll is referred to while in the first sentence not any particular Barbie doll is referred.
1) Ram said to his wife, “Please pack the gifts for kids that I bought yesterday”. (Here Ram is speaking about those particular gifts for kids that he bought the previous day.)
2) The Taj Mahal is made by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. (Here, Taj Mahal is a uniquely specified noun.)

Indefinite Article

An indefinite article is used for a noun that is not particular and uniquely specified. It can be a noun that the speaker is mentioning for the first time. For example: Give me a Chota Bheem DVD. Give me the Chota Bheem DVD. Here, in the first sentence the speaker is talking about no particular Chota Bheem DVD while in the second sentence the reference is definite. In the English language, there are two indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’. The indefinite article ‘an’ is used before words that begin with a vowel sound. At times even a word that starts with a consonant but sounds like a vowel. For example: an hour, an MBA, etc. Also the indefinite article ‘a’ is used before words that begin with a consonant sound even if the word begins with a vowel. For example: a European, etc. These were the basics about article in English language.