A

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history

an > a

an was the Old English word for "one".

phonology

  • a [ə] is used before a consonant sound (a quarter note, a half note, a whole note, a holy otter)
  • a [ə] is also used before glides (semi-vowels) like /w/ and /j/ (a week, a one-day layover, a year, a uniform, a use [ju:s]
  • an [ən, æn] is used before a vowel sound (an 8th note, an old note, an utter silence, another sound )
  • Curious dialectal phenomenon: a whole other story often becomes: a whole 'nother story. (in North Central American)

expressions

indefinite article

a is called an indefinite article or indefinite determiner1 because in a noun phrase (NP) like "a solution", no definite solution is necessarily referred to:

  • I'm sure we'll be able to find a solution. I have no idea what it will look like, but we'll find one.

On the other hand, when one person says to another: Look, there's a fat cat on the roof! the person speaking has seen the cat, and knows the person listening hasn't seen it. Otherwise the speaker would say Look, at that fat cat!


syntax

a or an can precede a singular common noun (which itself can be preceded by adjectives). It contrasts with the zero article which precedes indefinite plural nouns: There are problems with the contract. It likewise contrasts with the cardinal numbers and no.








1In modern grammar, articles are said to "determine" nouns, along with other words once considered to be adjectives, but now are considered to be determiners (possessives for example: your, her, our, his, their, my; quantifiers: any, many, no, some...).

indefinite determiner