What is an article and how to use it?

Articles are function words, which cannot be used alone and have no meaning. Used before nouns to help express the meaning of nouns. There are three kinds of articles in English, one is definite, the other is indefinite and the other is zero.

The indefinite article a (an) is homologous to the numeral one, which means "one". A is generally pronounced as [e] before consonant phonemes, and an is generally pronounced as [en] before vowel phonemes.

1) means "one", meaning one; Refers to a person or thing, indicating a certain kind.

A gentleman named Ling is waiting for you.

2) Represents a class of people or things.

Knives are tools for cutting.

Mr Smith is an engineer.

The definite article the is homologous to the demonstrative pronoun this and that, which means "that (this) one", but it is weak and can be used with nouns to indicate one or several specific people or things.

Article position

1) indefinite article position

Indefinite articles usually precede nouns or noun modifiers. note:

A. after the following adjectives: so, what, many, half,

I have never seen such an animal.

Many people are suitable for this job.

B. When the adjective before the noun is modified by adverbs to, so, too, how, however, when sufficient, the indefinite article should be placed after the adjective:

This is the most enjoyable day I have ever spent.

Such a short time.

It's too far.

C. Used with singular nouns, followed by articles.

But there are adjectives before rather and quite, and the indefinite article can be placed before and after it. For example, quite a lot

D in the adverbial clause guided by as, when and slogan are adjectives, the indefinite article is followed by adjectives:

Brave as he is, he trembles at the sight of snakes. Brave as he is, he shivers at the sight of a snake.

When nouns are modified by comparative adjectives, indefinite articles are usually placed after comparative adjectives.

2) Positioning the article

The definite article usually comes before a noun or noun modifier, but it comes before both, double, half, two, three times and nouns after all.

All the students in the class went out. All the students in the class went out.