Articles

General Information General information about 'a/an', 'the' and the zero article

Determiners: what they are and what they do We use a number of words in front of common nouns (or adjective + common noun) which we call determiners because they affect (or 'determine') the meaning of the noun.

Determiners make it clear, for example, which particular thing (s) we are referring to or how much of a substance we are talking about. Singular countable nouns must normally have a determiner in front of them. There are two classes:

1 Words which help us to classify or identify:

2 Words which enable us to indicate quantity:

Indefinite ('a/an'), definite ('the'), or zero (0)? 'A/an', 'the' or zero before countables and uncountables

The rules for the use of a/an, the and zero + countable or uncountable can be summarized as follows:

Basic uses of 'a/an' 1 A/an has an indefinite meaning, (i.e. the person, animal or thing referred to may be not known to the listener or reader, so a/an has the sense of any

2 A/an can combine only with a singular countable noun. These two facts underlie all uses of a/an. Some of the most important of these uses are discussed in the sections that follow.

Classification: 'a/an' to mean 'an example of that class' When we say a rose is a flower, we mean that a rose is an example of a class of items we call flowers; a daffodil is another example; a daisy is another example, and so on. We use a/an in this way when we wish to classify people, animals or things. We can classify them in two ways:

1 By means of general statements: –An architect is a person who designs buildings. A clever politician never promises too much. –2 By means of labels (a/an + noun after the verb be): Andrew Bright is an architect

Classification by means of general statements General statements with a/an often take the form of definitions: –A cat is a domestic animal. Definitions of this kind are possible because we can easily think of one cat at a time. If we make general statements with cats, we are referring to the whole species, not one example, but the- meaning is the same

Cats are domestic animals. Many uncountable nouns can be used after a/an when we are referring to 'an example of that class' –This is a very good coffee Is it Brazilian?

Classification by means of descriptive labels We often wish to classify people in terms of the work they do, where they come from, etc. In English (unlike many other European languages) we need to use a/an when we are, as it were, attaching labels to people with regard to: e.g.

Origins: He's a Frenchman/an American. Occupation: She's a doctor/He's an electrician. Religion: She's a Catholic/He's an Anglican Politics: He's a Socialist/a Republican

The use of 'a/an' to refer to 'a certain person' A/an can be used before titles (Mr, Mrs, Miss, etc.) with the sense of 'a certain person whom I don't know': –A Mr Wingate phoned and left a message for you. A Mrs Tadley is waiting to see you.

The phrase a certain, to refer to people whose identity is not yet known, is common in fables and folk stories: Many years ago a certain merchant arrived in Baghdad