1. Articles

Articles are the most common type of determiners.

There are three articles in English: a, an, and the.

1) 'A' and 'an' are called indefinite articles because they can refer to a group or any member in a group, for example:

a book, an apple [use 'an' before a vowel sound])

'The' is known as the definite article because it refers to a specific individual, unit, or member in a group that the writer and the reader has shared knowledge of , for example,

the book, the apple; the one and only Shy Baldwin (from The Marvelous Ms. Maisel);

'The' is also used before the superlative form of adjectives and adverbs (e.g., the smartest; the fastest)

Lastly, the + and adjective = a noun, for example:

2) In many cases, such as in idioms and proverbs, the choice of articles is conventional, which does not always conform to the prescriptive rules. For example:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

3) In fiction writing, writers often begin the story with the definite article 'the' to create the illusion that the readers are insiders. For example:

• "The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind."

-- Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

• After Rain

(Nigel McLoughlin, 2009)

the blue arch of the wind

makes the catkins ripple.