The Use of the Indefinite Article with Class Nouns. The article is a structural part of speech used as a determiner with nouns

The Article

The article is a structural part of speech used as a determiner with nouns. There are two articles in Modern English: the indefinite article and the definite article.

The indefinite article is used only with nouns in the singular and has the forms a and an. The form a is used before words beginning with a consonant sound, e.g. a book /@"bUk/, a university /@ %ju:nI"v3:sItI/.

The form an is used before words beginning with a vowel sound, e.g. an apple /@n"{pl/, an hour /@n"aU@/. This article is usually unstressed and pronounced /@/, /@n/; when stressed it is pronounced /eI/, /{n/.

The definite article has one graphic form the, which is pronounced in two ways: / Di/ before a vowel sound, e.g. an apple /Di"{pl/, and / D@ / before a consonant sound, e.g. a book /D@"bUk/. The use of the definite article shows that a particular object is meant.

These two articles are related to other determiners in the following way: the = this, that, the same; a (an) = some, any, such.

The absence of articles (sometimes called “zero” article) with class nouns in the plural, with abstract nouns and nouns of material has grammatical significance: it shows that the nouns are used in a general sense.

Class nouns are used with the indefinite article:

1. When the speaker mentions a noun (which is countable) for the first time:

For lunch I usually have a sandwich and an apple.

It is also used in sentences beginning with “there is/was”:

There is a newspaper on the table.

2. When the speaker presents the object expressed by the noun as belonging to a certain class. In this case the indefinite article has the meaning of “який-небудь”, “якийсь”, “один”, “деякий”:

A man and a woman are sitting opposite us.

We saw a house with a lawn in front of it.

In the plural we can use some, a few, several instead of a/an or no article is used in this case.

(Some) men and (a few) women are sitting opposite us.

I like the room because there are flowers in it.

3. With a predicative noun, when the speaker states that the object denoted by the noun belongs to a certain class (it is one of a class and has the meaning of “один з багатьох”):

My husband is a sailor.

Tom is a very nice person.

In the plural neither the article nor the pronoun some is used:

They are good children, no doubt.

4. When the noun is used in a general sense. The article has the meaning of “ every” and in­dicates that the following noun denotes a typical member of a class:

A cat is a domestic animal. (= Every cat is a domestic animal.)

In this case plural nouns are used without any articles:

Cats are domestic animals.

5. There are cases when the indefinite article preserves its old original meaning of “one”:

An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.

This meaning is generally found with:

v nouns denoting time, measure and weight:

A week or two passed.

I'll come back in a minute.

v in certain expressions of quantity:

a lot of, a couple, a great many, etc.

v in the pattern a…of with possessives, as in:

She’s a colleague of mine.

That’s a friend of Bill’s

v after a negative not:

not a word, not a thought, etc.

v in some set-phrases: one at a time, at a draught

v the numerals hundred, thousand, million and the nouns dozen, score:

My new car cost a thousand pounds.

v in expressions of price, speed, ratio etc.:

5p a kilo 10p a dozen

four times a day 60 kilometers an hour (a, an = per)

However, we use one rather than a/an if we want to emphasize that we are talking about only one person or thing rather than two or more:

Do you want one sandwich or more?

Are you staying just one night?

With nouns in the plural some is used:

Oliver's sobs checked his utterance for some minutes.

Note 1. We use one, not a/an in the pattern one…other/ another:

Close one eye, and then the other.

Bees carry pollen from one plant to another.

Note 2. We use one with the words day, week, month, year, night, winter, etc. or with specific day or month to say when something happened to mean a particular, but unspecified day, evening, winter, etc.:

One summer, our family decided to go to the Crimea.

We can use one day to refer to the future:

One day, you will regret this.

6. Before singular countable nouns after such and in exclamations after what:

What a lovely day today!

It’s such an interesting idea, isn’t it?

But: What pretty girls!

7. Nouns with the indefinite article are used after quite and rather:

It’s quite a long story and not a nice one.

He was rather a curious man to look at.

Sometimes quite and rather can be placed after the indefinite article (especially in AmE):

He is a rather clever man.

It’s a quite important problem.

8. Nouns with the indefinite article follow many (the verb is used in the singular):

Many an evening he sat staring at the fire.

9. The indefinite article is also used in various descriptions:

He’s got a long face and a turned up nose.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29