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Meaning of "indefinite article" in the English dictionary

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PRONUNCIATION OF INDEFINITE ARTICLE

indefinite article play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF INDEFINITE ARTICLE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Indefinite article is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES INDEFINITE ARTICLE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Article (grammar)

An article is a word that is used with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some. 'An' and 'a' are modern forms of the Old English 'an', which in Anglian dialects was the number 'one' and survived into Modern Scots as the number 'ane'. Both 'on' and 'an' survived into Modern English, with 'one' used as the number and 'an' as an indefinite article. Traditionally in English, an article is usually considered to be a type of adjective. In some languages, articles are a special part of speech, which cannot easily be combined with other parts of speech. It is also possible for articles to be part of another part of speech category such as a determiner, an English part of speech category that combines articles and demonstratives. In languages that employ articles, every common noun, with some exceptions, is expressed with a certain definiteness, just as many languages express every noun with a certain grammatical number.

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

indefeasibility
indefeasible
indefeasibleness
indefeasibly
indefectibility
indefectible
indefectibly
indefensibility
indefensible
indefensibleness
indefensibly
indefinability
indefinable
indefinableness
indefinably
indefinite
indefinite integral
indefinite pronoun
indefinitely
indefiniteness

WORDS THAT END LIKE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

alpha particle
antiparticle
article
canticle
cuticle
definite article
elementary particle
feature article
God particle
Higgs particle
interparticle
leading article
microparticle
multiparticle
nanoparticle
particle
quasiparticle
reticle
subarticle
testicle
vehicle

Synonyms and antonyms of indefinite article in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «indefinite article» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF INDEFINITE ARTICLE

Find out the translation of indefinite article to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of indefinite article from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «indefinite article» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

不定冠词
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

artículo indefinido
570 millions of speakers

English

indefinite article
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

अनिश्चितकालीन लेख
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

النكرة
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

неопределенный артикль
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

artigo indefinido
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

অনির্দিষ্ট নিবন্ধ
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

article indéfini
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Artikel tak terbatas
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

unbestimmte Artikel
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

不定冠詞
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

부정 관사
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Artikel indefinite
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

bài viết không xác định
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

காலவரையற்ற கட்டுரை
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

अनिश्चित लेख
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

belirsiz makale
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

articolo indeterminativo
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

nieokreślony
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

невизначений артикль
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

Articolul nedeterminată
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

αόριστο άρθρο
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

onbepaalde artikel
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

obestämd artikel
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

ubestemt artikkel
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of indefinite article

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «INDEFINITE ARTICLE»

The term «indefinite article» is regularly used and occupies the 76.093 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Regularly used
65
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «indefinite article» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of indefinite article
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «indefinite article».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «INDEFINITE ARTICLE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «indefinite article» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «indefinite article» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about indefinite article

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «INDEFINITE ARTICLE»

Discover the use of indefinite article in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to indefinite article and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Introduction to English Linguistics
Allomorphs are different morphs representing the same morpheme. The parts of the term 'allomorph', allo and morph, come from Greek and mean 'different' and ' form', respectively. In the case of the indefinite article above, we can say that [ ́], ...
Ingo Plag, Maria Braun, Sabine Lappe, 2009
2
The Rado_da-Vev?ani Dialect of Macedonian: Structure, Texts, ...
We therefore raise the question: is there an element which can be called the indefinite article in Macedonian? To the best of my knowledge this problem has not yet received any serious attention. The only candidate for the indefinite article  ...
P. Hendriks, 1976
3
Essays on Nominal Determination: From Morphology to ...
This process is described for the Romance languages and Danish. In languages where an indefinite article exists, it is historically derived from the numeral 'one'. This origin of the indefinite article points out two possible directions for its further  ...
Henrik Høeg Müller, Alex Klinge, 2008
4
A Grammar of Afrikaans
Bruce C. Donaldson. 3.2. The indefinite article The indefinite article is 'n 'a'. Despite appearances it is pronounced [a]. The 'n is pronounced in the speech of some people, often but not always depending on the first sound of the following noun ...
Bruce C. Donaldson, 1993
5
Pragmatic Organization of Discourse in the Languages of Europe
Indefinite articles "Indefinite article" will be defined as: - a morphological device ( free morpheme, enclitic morpheme, or affix) with the primary function to denote the indefiniteness of noun phrases. Again, the requirement that the indefinite ...
Giuliano Bernini, Marcia L. Schwartz, 2006
6
The Acquisition of the DP in Modern Greek
Theodoros Marinis. 3.1 The distribution of articles MG has a definite and an indefinite article, as illustrated in ( la) and ( Ib) below. Both the definite and indefinite article precede the noun1 and agree in case, number and gender with the noun.
Theodoros Marinis, 2003
7
The Teacher's Grammar of English with Answers: A Course Book ...
The indefinite article, a/an, occurs when the listener is not expected to be able to identify the object specifically. The listener may know the concept represented by the noun, but that is all. The contrast between indefinite and definite articles in ...
Ron Cowan, 2008
8
Handbook of Child Psychology, Cognition, Perception, and ...
On the one hand, the definite article the serves to pick out a specific entity, as in “I want the cookie” (that's in your hand), whereas the indefinite article a serves to pick out a nonspecific entity, as in “I want a cookie” (any cookie). On the other ...
William Damon, Richard M. Lerner, Deanna Kuhn, 2006
9
An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax
Second, the indefinite article is a reduced form of the word 'one'; the original -n is preserved before a vowel ('an eye'), otherwise dropped.1 The articles are not always used in English to mark definites or indefinites. Nouns in some syntactic ...
Bruce K. Waltke, Michael Patrick O'Connor, 1990
10
Arabic For Dummies
The indefinite articles in English are “a” and “an,” such as in “a book” or “an umbrella.” The definite article is the word “the,” as in “the book” or “the umbrella.” Unlike English, Arabic has no outright indefinite article; instead, the indefinite article ...
Amine Bouchentouf, 2011

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «INDEFINITE ARTICLE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term indefinite article is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Favourite words: Readers take their pick, from corybantic to shiffle …
A favourite word, she says, strategically activating the indefinite article (“It's impossible to nominate the preferred one'') is apoplectic. “It seems ... «The Australian, Jul 15»
2
Honda Exec Hints That 'Baby NSX' Might Be A Real Actual Thing
This is why I always tell my students, yes, the choice of definite article versus indefinite article matters! Advertisement. Mendel also reportedly ... «Jalopnik, Jul 15»
3
Re: Nkrumahism, The Can Of Worms I Opened–Noam Chomsky 1
What is more, the indefinite article, “a,” standing tall singularly before the phrasal construct “famous and important speech” unequivocally points ... «GhanaWeb, Jul 15»
4
Will Ben Affleck Direct 2018's 'The Batman'?
... summer's blockbuster to the 2018 standalone film The Batman, which I guess is better than using an indefinite article and calling it A Batman ... «Screen Junkies, Jun 15»
5
Everyday Grammar: Using the Right Article
Its partner, the indefinite article "a", is also among the top 10 most frequent words in English. According to Professor Elka Todeva of the SIT ... «VOA Learning English, Jun 15»
6
Netflix picks up Irish-based animation 'Puffin Rock'
... presumably seen as a bridge too far for international audiences who might confuse it with the Spanish or Italian feminine indefinite article. «Irish Times, Jun 15»
7
More Evidence of mSpy Apathy Over Breach
The lack of a definite or indefinite article in “…cannot be tracked back to data owner…” is very typical since “a” and “the” don't exist in Russian. «Krebs on Security, May 15»
8
Literary discourse: Grammatical gender
As an illustration, the indefinite article “a” is used for both masculine and feminine nouns starting with consonants in English [a boy or a girl]. «GhanaWeb, May 15»
9
Death to the Maxi Dress: A Manifesto
... like some kind of MILF Dalai Lama, I read the “A” in “A Style”—despite its telltale capitalization—as an indefinite article, much like “a cat. «Jezebel, May 15»
10
Variety show to support Ithaca music education
Brahms also chooses the indefinite article “ein,” suggesting that the work represents his personal ideas about life and death, not those of either ... «Ithaca Journal, Apr 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Indefinite article [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/indefinite-article>. Apr 2024 ».
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