What Is An Article in English? A An The

In English grammar, there are two different types of article, the definite article and the indefinite article. In the most simple terms an article is a way of letting the listener or speaker know that a noun is either unspecific or specific. The words which are used as articles are the, an and a.

Lets take a look at some examples to clarify the meaning of an article.

• During the long journey, the family played car games.

You can see that when we use the article the that we are showing that we are talking about a specific day and also a specific family. However, if we change the article, we can show that we are not talking about a specific journey or family. Take a look at the example now:

• During a long journey, a family can play car games.

Simply by changing the article, we have made the sentence a more general statement and not about a specific thing or person.

Quick note: 

• Articles are small but important words in the English language.
• Articles are considered adjectives because they modify or help describe nouns.
• Articles always come before or precede the nouns they describe.

There are only three articles in English: a, an and the.

There are two types of articles indefinite a and an or definite the. You also need to know when not to use an article.

In many languages, articles are a special part of speech which cannot be easily combined with other parts of speech.

Article Grammar: A An The – Image 1