Definition:
A type of determiner that precedes a noun: a, an, or the. See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "joint, article"Examples and Observations:
- "A case can be made for the poet giving some of his life to the use of the words the and a: both of which are weighted with as much epos and historical destiny as one man can perhaps resolve."
(Louis Zukofsky) - "The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence."
(H. L. Mencken) - "The definite and indefinite article, a.k.a. the and the duo of a and an, field the smallest roster of any part of speech but the biggest per-word punch. The is the most commonly used word in the English language, occurring nearly 62,000 times in every million words written or uttered--or about once in every 16 words. That's more than twice as often as the runner-up, of. A, meanwhile, places fifth and an comes in at thirty-fourth. . . .
"As for meaning, the differences between using a and the and omitting the article altogether (which linguists call the 'zero article'; for indefinite plural or collective nouns one can use either the zero article or the word some) are so manifold and complicated that most grammar books take a pass on going into them and take the easy way out. That is, they say something to the effect that by the age of four, native English speakers know in their bones the difference between 'I drank Coke,' 'I drank the Coke,' and 'I drank a Coke,' and the fact that you take a pass but the easy way out. But someone trying to learn English as a second language, they go on to say, will never really master the intricacies, and so it's a waste of everyone's time to go into them."
(Ben Yagoda, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It. Broadway Books, 2007)
Pronunciation: AR-ti-kul
