What is an Article?

An article is a component of speech or writing that forms a major part of your work. An article explains, clarifies, defines or gives information on something. There are many different types of articles for different purposes to make your writing more interesting and easier to understand.

Nouns are words that name people, places, things or ideas. Articles are words that come before nouns and show whether the noun is specific (definite) or general (indefinite). This is called ‘determining the noun’.

Articles are one of the most important parts of speech in English. They help to make the meaning of a sentence clear by making it either specific or general. In this article, we will understand what is an article and look at some of the different types of articles, give examples for each one and explain when they should be used.

There are two major types of articles in English: definite and indefinite.

Definite:

You may have a question in mind, what is a definite article? A definite article is the word ‘the’. This shows that we are talking about a particular person, place or thing.

For Examples:

The boy crawled under the table and hid. [Definite]

A definite article is a part of speech that typically specifies a particular noun or group of nouns. It answers the questions “Which one?” or “what kind of.” For example, if you are looking for a restaurant that has doughnuts in it, you would say, “I’m looking for the (definite article) restaurant that has doughnuts in it.”

The use of the definite article typically specifies a particular noun or group of nouns, but it also gives general information about something.

Indefinite:

An indefinite article is ‘a’ or ‘an’. This shows that we are talking about a person, place or thing in a general sense, but we do not need to be more specific.

For Example:

I bought a bike from the shop. [Indefinite]

An indefinite article is a part of speech that typically specifies a noun as one belonging to a group, but it does not specify anything about the number or type of the noun. For example, if you are looking for a restaurant with doughnuts in it, you would say, “I’m looking for a (indefinite article) restaurant with doughnuts in it.”

The use of an indefinite article typically specifies a noun as belonging to a group, but it does not specify anything about the number or type of the noun.

Different articles are:

What are the articles of grammar? Here we will understand: 

An article is a part of speech that usually precedes a noun. Depending upon the grammatical form, articles indicate the definiteness or indefiniteness of nouns. Articles are also used to indicate the number of the noun by its definite article, which is “the” and an indefinite article which is “a” or “an.”

A/An:

The use of ‘a or an’ before a noun depends on the first letter of the word following. If a word begins with a consonant, use an article before it. Likewise, use ‘a’ before words that begin with a vowel.

The use of “a” or “an” can be difficult to apply sometimes. For example, if you want to say that you have a pen in your pocket, you cannot say “I have pen in pocket” and instead should say “I have a pen in my pocket.” Another example can be seen when using the article “an” with abbreviations. For example, if you are talking about a person who has completed his M.A, you would say “He is an M.A.”.

The use of articles can be very confusing even to native speakers. Therefore, it is recommended to use articles very sparingly. If you are unsure, try not using the article at all.

The:

The definite article, “the,” is used to specify a particular noun or group of nouns. For example, if you are looking for a restaurant, try saying, “I’m looking for the Dunkin Donuts.”

The use of articles can also be used to give general information. For example, if you are talking about the weather, you would say, “The weather outside is cold.”

An article is typically used to specify a noun or group of nouns, but it can also give general information about something.

No Article:

If you are talking about a particular thing in general, use no article before the noun. For example, if you want to say that you lost your house key, you should say, “I misplaced my house key.”

No article is used when talking about a general person, place or thing.

Each of these articles specifies a type of noun. It is called the definite article because it is used in front of specific nouns. A/An, called the indefinite article, is used for general things. Definite articles are used with singular and plural countable nouns, while indefinite articles are used with singular countable nouns. Finally, no article is used for any specific or general things that is not identified.

Article forms depend on how an article changes its forms depending on whether it is used with a singular or plural noun, a countable or uncountable noun, and whether it is a definite or indefinite article.

Feature Article:

It may be confusing here to introduce the idea of feature article as it is slightly different from grammatical units of articles that we just learnt. Unlike the definite and indefinite articles, a feature article is a piece of narrative that gives more in-depth knowledge of some events, topics or people. It is always written by experts who have the specific domain knowledge about the background of the topic.

Conclusion

Now we know, what is an article and what is a feature article as well as their difference. The two major types of articles are definite and indefinite. A definite article’s main use is to specify a noun in particular, while an indefinite article specifies a noun in a general sense. It is often difficult to use articles correctly, but the best rule of thumb is to be as specific as possible when specifying a noun.