Article

From KneeQuickie

Articles are a class of determiners that indicate whether a noun phrase is definite or indefinite. A definite noun is identifiable to both the speaker and the listener, either because of shared knowledge or a previous mention of the referent, while an indefinite one is new and previously unmentioned. On occasion articles may indicate other distinctions as well, such as partitives.

In many languages articles agree with their heads much like other determiners and adjectives.

Definite:	I saw the man.	Here, the man refers to a specific man, which the listener can identify.
Indefinite:	I saw a man.	Here, a man refers to a man that isn't identifiable by the listener, and hasn't been mentioned before.

Contents 1 Definite articles in natlangs 1.1 English 1.2 French 1.3 German 1.4 Spanish 1.5 Italian

Definite articles in natlangs

Many, perhaps most, natural languages lack articles and either do without a grammaticized definite distinction or use constructions like topic-comment structure. Others may have definite articles but not indefinite ones. The definite article is often related to the word for "that" while the indefinite may derive from "one".

English

In English, the definite article is the, which is often cliticized. The article precedes the noun and all adjectives modifying it. Demonstratives and -'s phrases also act as definite articles. The is also used to make generalizations (The wolf is a mammal).

The indefinite article has two forms, "a" and "an", with the first used before consonants and the second before vowels. This article is never used for plural nouns.

French

In French, the definite article inflects to agree with a noun in gender and number. It derives from the Latin word for "that".

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	le	les
Feminine	la

German

In German, the definite article inflects to agree with a noun in gender, number, and case. It is also used to make generalizations (Die Rose ist eine Blume.), and with some countries and regions (die Schweiz).

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den
Genitive	des	der	des	der

The indefinite article also agrees with the noun.

Spanish

In Spanish, the definite article inflects to agree with a noun in gender and number. It derives from the Latin word for "that". For phonetic reasons, some feminine words beginning with stressed /ˈa/ will take el in the singular.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	el	los
Feminine	la	las

Italian

Much as with Spanish, the Italian article aggrees with its noun in number and gender. However, it varies greatly due to phonological factors.