Religious Duo

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. The three main articles in the English language are the, an and a. An article is sometimes called a Noun marker, although this is generally considered to be an archaic term. [1]

It is sometimes wondered which part of speech articles belong to. Since articles modify nouns, either alone or in combination with an adjective, they are sometimes classed as adjectives. However, some linguists place them in a different category, that of determiners.

Articles can have various functions:[2]

* A definite article (English the) is used before singular and plural nouns that refer to a particular member of a group.

The cat is on the black mat.

* An indefinite article (English a, an) is used before singular nouns that refer to any member of a group.

A cat is a mammal.

* A partitive article indicates an indefinite quantity of a mass noun; there is no partitive article in English, though the words some or any often have that function.

French: Voulez-vous du cafй ? ("Do you want some coffee?" or "Do you want coffee?")

* A zero article is the absence of an article (e.g. English indefinite plural), used in some languages in contrast with the presence of one. Linguists hypothesize the absence as a zero article based on the X-bar theory.