Articles and other noun markers

Articles (a, an, the) are part of a category of words known as noun markers or determiners. Standard English uses noun markers to help identify the nouns that follow. In addition to articles, noun markers include

Articles and other noun markers always appear before nouns. Sometimes other modifiers, such as adjectives, come between a noun marker and a noun.

Example sentence: Felix is reading a book about mythology. Explanation: The article is “a” before the noun “book.”

Example sentence: Vanessa defeated her younger sister to win the gold medal. Explanation: “her” is a noun marker and “younger” an adjective before the noun “sister.” “the” is an article and “gold” an adjective before the noun “medal.”

Example sentence: That very delicious meal was expensive. Explanation: “That” is a noun marker, “very” is an adverb, and “delicious” is an adjective before the noun “meal.”

In most cases, do not use an article with another noun marker, such as this.

Example sentence: That very delicious meal was expensive. Explanation: “That” is a noun marker, “very” is an adverb, and “delicious” is an adjective before the noun “meal.”

EXCEPTION:Some expressions consist of an article and another noun marker: a few, the most, all the.

Exercises:

Using articles 1

Using articles 2

Using articles 3

Articles and types of nouns

Related topics:

Possessive nouns

Possessive pronoun/adjectives

Demonstrative pronoun/adjectives

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