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An indefinite article is an article that marks an indefinite noun phrase. Indefinite articles are those such as English " a " or "an", which do not refer to a specific identifiable entity. Indefinites are commonly used to introduce a new discourse referent which can be referred back to in subsequent discussion:
The articles in English are the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an.They are the two most common determiners.The definite article is the default determiner when the speaker believes that the listener knows the identity of a common noun's referent (because it is obvious, because it is common knowledge, or because it was mentioned in the same sentence or an earlier sentence).
A definite article should be applied only if The is used in running text throughout university materials and if that usage has caught on elsewhere. Otherwise, do not use the definite article for universities. This guideline is a weak version of the most-common-name rule. Most universities do not have a definite article in their names.
Articles are words used (as a standalone word or a prefix or suffix) to specify the grammatical definiteness of a noun, and, in some languages, volume or numerical scope. Articles often include definite articles (such as English the) and indefinite articles (such as English a and an).
An indefinite or definite article is capitalized only when at the start of a title, subtitle, or embedded title or subtitle. For example, a book chapter titled "An Examination of The Americans : The Anachronisms in FX's Period Spy Drama" contains three capitalized leading articles (main title "An", embedded title " The ", and subtitle "The").
The term zero article refers to the phenomenon wherein grammatically valid noun phrases contain no articles, either definite or indefinite. It is also used in reference to a theoretical zero-length article that can be said to be used in place of an expected article in some situations. [3]
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Semantically, determiners are usually definite or indefinite (e.g., the cat versus a cat), [4] and they often agree with the number of the head noun (e.g., a new cat but not *many new cat). Morphologically, they are usually simple and do not inflect. The most common of these are the definite and indefinite articles, the and a(n).