IMPRINT

  Home

  Dear Editors...

  About Us

TIDINGS

  Member Profile

COLUMNS

  Current Trends

  Grammar Dose

  Best Practices

  Tool Time

OUTLOOK

  Presidential Perspective

  Editors' Footnote

  Director Sponsor's Letter

CRITIQUE

NEWS YOU CAN USE

  Jobs

  Networking Opportunities

  Learning Opportunities

How to Determine Articles in Ten Minutes

By Gururaj B.S. and Prabhat N.R.

In this issue, we are trying to address an important topic that should impact everyone in the technical writing community. In modern grammar, articles are classified as determiners. There are three articles in English: a, an, and the. The first two are indefinite articles, and the last one is the definite article. They indicate class membership of the noun they modify. An article is always used in the attributive position—it comes before a noun. However, an adjective or a series of adjectives may separate the article and the noun being modified. The purpose of articles is to determine the references of nouns, so they sometimes serve the purpose of limiting adjectives. Errors in article usage are not very serious issues. For example, consider the following sentence:

Please send me a message by today evening.

Let us now leave the indefinite article out of the sentence. The modified sentence is as follows:

Please send me message by today evening.

Language is a tool, and we use this tool to communicate. The sentence without the article is meaningful, and it can be understood. However, being grammar-focused is quite important, and it is better to use the articles correctly.

A or An?

Let us understand how to use the indefinite articles—a and an. The indefinite article a modifies nouns or acronyms that begin with consonant sounds, whereas the the indefinite article an modifies nouns or acronyms that begin with vowel sounds.

Consider the following examples:

A configuration file

A UNIX user

An IP message

An SSH client

In the first phrase, a identifies configuration file as one of many configuration files. In the second phrase, the noun UNIX begins with a vowel, but it is pronounced as “yoo-nix.” So, in this phrase, a is used instead of an. In the third phrase, the acronym begins with a vowel, so an is used to modify the acronym. In the last phrase, the acronym begins with a consonant, but it is pronounced as “es-es-h.” So, an is used to modify the acronym.

Too Many Nouns to Modify?

Do not worry at all. It is not a complex problem. You can use an indefinite article (a or an) in the series of nouns if each noun conveys a separate idea or thought.

For example, consider the following sentence:

You must have a computer, a cell phone, and a car.

If the nouns are closely related to one another, you can use an indefinite article (a or an) for the first item in the series only.

I have a television, VCR, and DVD player.

Something in Particular?

The definite article the modifies particular people, places, ideas, and things. When we speak of “the user,” we are referring to one user in particular—the user of SSH, the UNIX user, the Windows user, and so on. In other words, if our reader or listener knows exactly which user we mean, we must use the definite article to modify the noun “user.” When you introduce a noun for the first time in your document, you can use an indefinite article because the term is new to your readers. However, when you mention the same noun again, your readers know what you are referring to, so you must use the definite article the.

Read the following:

Kerberos is a protocol. The protocol is based on RFC 1234.

You can download the software from the Web site.

In the first example, the indefinite article a introduces Kerberos as a protocol. The second sentence in the same example uses the definite article the to modify the noun protocol because you already know the specific protocol that we are talking about.

In the second example, the definite article modifies the nouns software and Web site. The nouns refer to particular things: a software package the user wants to download and a Web site where that software can be found.

As always, please send your questions, suggestions, or comments to Gururaj B.S. and Prabhat N.R.