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The short word "a" in English is an article like "el" in Spanish, "al" in Arabic, "der" in German or "le" in French. Articles do not really have a definition; it is easier to try to describe their function. They are words which come before nouns in sentences and show that a noun is following close behind. The noun may not be immediately behind, as adjectives in English are placed before the noun but after the article (e.g. "a stupid reason" or "a brilliant move") "A", which is called an indefinite article, also marks the object being spoken of as being an unspecified member of a group, as opposed to "the", which marks the object as being a specific object or group of objects which is identified. "A" also marks the following noun as singular; it cannot be used with a group of objects. Finally, "a" is only used before words which start with a consonant sound; where the following word starts with a vowel sound, the word "an" is used.

Example: She went to the store and bought a green dress.

The use of "a" in "a green dress" tells us:

1. There is a noun following close behind, which is "dress". The noun is modified with an adjective, "green", which comes between article and noun.

2. It's not a specific dress we are talking about, just one of the many green dresses available. If we specified, we would have to use "the" ("She went into the store and bought the green dress her sister loved."). Note that the place she bought it is specific, it is "the store". If it had been any old store, the sentence would read, "She went to a store and bought a green dress."

3. We know that there was only one dress purchased; if she had bought a bunch of them, there would be no article at all: "She went to the store and bought green dresses for her bridesmaids."

4. The following word, "green" starts with a consonant sound. If the dress had been orange, the word "an" would be used: "She went to the store and bought an orange dress."

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10y ago
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Wiki User

9y ago

'a' is a string literal . 'a' will be referred to as a string.

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Q: What is the definition of 'a'?
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