Part 3 Nouns and Noun Groups
Articles (a, an, the)
Examples
It was a bright cold day in (∅) April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
The hallway smelt of (∅) boiled cabbage and (∅) old rag mats.
A coloured poster … depicted simply an enormous face, almost a metre wide: the face of a man of above forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and (∅) ruggedly handsome features.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
Definition
Articles are a category of determiner, so they add the meaning of which one(s) to the head noun. Articles are notoriously tricky little words. Most proficient users of English don’t need to think about articles, but the choice between a, and, the, and no article (∅) can be very difficult for MLLs. Most monolingual English teaching in early grades focuses on the difference between a and an, but this is probably the least important distinction for MLLs.
The is known as the definite article.
It is used when the listener/reader knows exactly which one(s) the speaker/writer is referring to. The can be used with any type of noun – singular or plural, count or noncount, and sometimes even with proper nouns.
- the clocks (in the town)
- the face (on the poster)
- The is also used for nouns that are unique or easily identified:
- the economy (typically, we only one have economy in a society)
- the weather
- the internet
A/an are indefinite articles.
They are only used with singular count nouns, and they basically mean one (any one thing – it doesn’t matter, or it isn’t yet known to the listener/reader).
- a bright cold day (we don’t know which one)
- an enormous face (we don’t yet know whose face)
- a man (one man, but we don’t know who)
- a poster (the first time we’ve heard of this poster)
The zero article (∅) means that we don’t use any article.
We use the zero article with some plural nouns and noncount nouns. We don’t use any article to refer to the thing in general.
- in ∅ April (proper nouns rarely need articles because they are already specific)
- ∅ boiled cabbage (noncount noun: not a specific cabbage, but cabbage in general)
- ∅ handsome features (plural noun: his features in general)
Form
There are many patterns of article use, but here are a few key “rules” that learners can follow:
Don’t use a/an with plural nouns or noncount nouns (*an information, *a posters).
Singular count nouns must have a determiner – they can’t use the zero article (*day, *man).
Use a/an the first time you introduce something, and then the for the second reference: I saw a poster. The poster depicted a man. The man had a moustache.
When choosing between a and an, use an when the next word starts with a vowel sound (not necessarily a vowel letter): an idea, an MC, an herb [in American English], an uptick but a university, a hotel, a yeti. Note that the /y/ sound in you, yeti, and the start of university is a consonant in linguistics!
Careful!
Although many languages have articles, they rarely aligned exactly with the usage in English. For example, abstract nouns are noncount in English and do not usually need article, but in many other languages, they need a definite article (the Italian movie La vita e bella is translated as Life is Beautiful not literally as The Life is Beautiful).
Function
Articles are a way of expressing reference: that is, they can be used to connect ideas and refer to uses of the same word. For example, once a student has written about a house, they can now refer to it as the house, and we all know what they mean. This is an example of cohesion. In other words, while many grammar books focus on the correctness of a/an/the in the noun group, functional grammar is more concerned with the ways articles connect ideas across sentences and throughout texts. For example, here are some more extracts from the first chapter of 1984:
Inside the flat [apartment], a fruity voice was reading out of a list of figures … The voice came from an oblong metal plaque … Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.
We can analyze the articles in terms of their cohesive function:
the flat = the flat which Winston just entered in the previous paragraph
a voice = this is something new to the reader
the voice = refers back to the same voice coming from the metal plaque
the words = this is the first use of the noun “words” but the tells us the author means the words that the voice is speaking
an oblong plaque = the first mention of this thing
the instrument = a second reference to the same oblong metal plaque on the wall
the telescreen = the instrument (its technical name in the word of 1984)
Further Reading
Specific and general determiners (LearnEnglish)
The indefinite article: ‘a’ and ‘an’ (LearnEnglish)
The definite article: ‘the’ (LearnEnglish)
