Do you know what an article is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on articles, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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November 12, 2021
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Common Questions
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What is an article?
According to 7 ESL, an article is a part of speech that identifies whether a noun is specific or unspecific. There are two types of article: the definite article and the indefinite article. The definite article is the word “the” and the indefinite articles are the words “an” and “a.” These categories of article can be used before plural nouns, proper nouns, uncountable nouns, a person’s name, a countable noun, the name of a person, singular nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. A is used then the following word begins with a consonant sound, while an is used when the following word begins with vowel sounds. The word article comes from Middle English, Anglo-French, and as borrowed from the Latin articulus, Latin artus and culus, from Indo-European roots. The use of articles and the different types of article can be used in academic writing and are seen anywhere.
Many different languages also contain words that mean article. You may notice that some of these translations of article look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of article is provided by Word Sense.
- Kazakh: артикль
- Portuguese: artigo (masc.)
- Venetian: artìcoło (masc.)
- Cyrillic: члан (masc.)
- Kyrgyz: артикль
- Korean: 관사
- Malay: kata sandang, artikel
- Aragonese: articlo (masc.)
- Armenian: հոդ
- Macedonian: член (masc.)
- Roman: član (masc.)
- Japanese: 冠詞 (かんし, kanshi)
- Romanian: articol (neut.)
- Norman: articl’ye (fem.)
- Slovene: člen (masc.)
- Thai: คำกำกับนาม (kam gam-gàp naam)
- Estonian: artikkel
- Finnish: artikkeli
- Catalan: article (masc.)
- Polish: przedimek (m-in), rodzajnik (m-in)
- Arabic: أَدَاة اَلتَّعْرِيف
- Yiddish: אַרטיקל (masc.)
- Slovak: člen (masc.)
- Russian: арти́кль (masc.), член (masc.) (obsolete)
- Latin: articulus (masc.)
- Ancient Greek: ἄρθρον (neut.)
- Lithuanian: artikelis (masc.)
- Icelandic: greinir (masc.), gr. (masc.)
- Italian: articolo (masc.)
- Georgian: არტიკლი
- Scottish Gaelic: alt (masc.)
- Esperanto: artikolo
- Hungarian: névelő, névmutató
- Tajik: артикл
- Bulgarian: член
- Dutch: lidwoord (neut.)
- Faroese: kenniorð (neut.)
- Danish: kendeord (neut.), artikel (common)
- Greek: άρθρο (neut.)
- Mongolian: ялгац гишүүн
- Swahili: makala
- Vietnamese: mạo từ
- French: article (masc.)
- Belarusian: арты́кль (masc.)
- Indonesian: kata sandang, artikel
- German: Artikel (masc.), Begleiter (masc.), Geschlechtswort (neut.)
- Czech: člen (masc.)
- Ukrainian: арти́кль (masc.)
- Spanish: artículo (masc.)
- Albanian: nyjë (fem.)
- Asturian: artículu (masc.)
- Galician: artigo (masc.)
- Turkish: harfitarif, tanımlık
- Uzbek: artikl
- Azeri: artikl
- Swedish: artikel
- Latvian: artikuls (masc.)
- Lojban: gadri
- Mandarin: 冠詞, 冠词 (guàncí)
What are examples of articles?
Articles can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of articles that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these article examples and see how many you can identify the article in!
- We studied the Great Lakes like Lake Erie and an elephant’s life cycle in biology for homework.
- In our luggage, we packed a bag of rice.
- The Senate has a specific quantity of senators per state.
- We read the poetry from Italy.
- We read the statute and stipulation that were on a handout from the guidance team.
- We studied the gulf and bays by the peninsulas near the Aleutians.
- We filled a tank of gasoline.
- In soccer and hockey, you may injure a limb.
- We ate an apple pie in the United States of America. I stained the uniform.
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- accusative
- modify | modifier
- interrogative
- causative
- article
- non-finite
- indirect object
- superlative
- subject
- indefinite
- protasis
- participial adjective
- imperative (imper.)
- main clause
- concrete
- reflexive
- pronoun (pron.)
- construction
- element
- predicative
- cognate object
- to-infinitive
- zero
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- copular verb | copula
- phrasal verb
- subjective
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- preposition (prep.)
- determiner
- nominative
- mood
- past tense
- instrumental
- person
- apposition
- locative
- quasi-
- verbal noun
- direct object
- pro-form
- gerund
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- apodosis and protasis
- part of speech
- bare infinitive
- common noun
- complementary
- objective
- infinitive
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- main verb
- definite article
- possessive adjective
- special use
- collocation | collocate
- optative
- article
- indicative
- clause
- agree | agreement
- masculine
- ellipsis | elliptical
- impersonal (impers.)
- indirect passive
- present participle
- construed (const., constr.)
- appositive
- number
- adverbial | adverbially
- prepositional passive
- participle | past participle | present participle
- adjective
- object | direct object | indirect object
- conjunction (conj.)
- declarative
- feminine
- positive
- combination
- past participle
- interjection
- postmodify | postmodifier
- mass noun
- head
- passive
- tense
- plural
- vocative
- direct speech
- comparative
- collective noun
- prepositional phrase
- phrase (phr.)
- possessive pronoun
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- demonstrative
- gender
- indirect question
- simple
- dative
- singular
- indirect speech
- intensifier
- unmarked genitive
- that-clause
- personal pronoun
- neuter
- adverb (adv.)
- finite
- verb (v.)
- third-person
- similative
- abstract
- anticipatory
- prepositional object
- direct question
- relative
- dual
- count noun
- attributive
- active
- subordinate clause
- agent noun
- present tense
- subjunctive
- transitive
- filler
- suffix
- proper noun | proper name
- combining form (comb. form)
- noun phrase
- prefix
- base form
- first person
- premodify | premodifier
- passive infinitive
- absolute (absol.)
- second person
- compound | compounding
- intransitive
- cataphoric
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- antecedent
- complement
- anaphoric
- morpheme
- stem
- perfect
- possessive
- progressive
- case
- double object
- genitive
- non-referential
- conditional
- parasynthetic
- noun (n.)
Overall, an article is a part of speech that identifies whether a noun or subject is general or specific.
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