A WORD ON THE WORDS

HERE’S a question that I’m sure will have kept you awake many a night – how many articles are there in the English language?

“The” is the only definite article. It is a specific. “Give me the cup” You know which cup is being referred to.

“A” or “an” are indefinite articles. “Give me a cup” or “Give me an apple” can refer to any cup or apple. An is used when the first letter of its noun is a vowel or has a vowel sound “An owl” or “An hour”.

“An hotel” is just stupid and we won’t spend any time on it.

Then there’s the zero article, really the absence of an article. “Apples were eaten”. It is used with plurals.

Whether the zero article can be counted as an article is debatable. Can you count something that isn’t there?

There is a case for the negative article, which specifies none of its noun. “No people have been in this area” or “No dogs allowed”. Like the zero article, though, does it really count as an article if it is a negative?

The real arguments are over the partitive article. It’s another indefinite article but is used of an uncountable noun. “Give me some water” or “Let’s buy some furniture”.

But “some” is a determiner. It tells us something about its noun, like “many” or “several”. It isn’t really an article, though some think it should be.

Just to confuse matters, all articles are also technically determiners.

It’s enough to confuse an man!