Using the indefinite article to describe things and people

CHAPTER 3: USING THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

Using the indefinite article to introduce something

You usually use the indefinite article when you are introducing a particular thing (or person) into a conversation or text for the first time and you cannot assume that your listener or reader knows which particular thing you are talking about.

After weeks of looking, we eventually bought a house.

I've been reading an interesting article in The Economist.

Note that if you can assume that people will know what you are talking about, then you usually introduce the thing using the definite article. The most important point, then, is that you use the indefinite article when people do not yet know what you are referring to. Later on, if you want to refer to the thing (or person) again, you can in some cases repeat the noun with the definite article, although more often you use a personal pronoun such as 'it', 'he', 'him', 'she', or 'her'.

...if I could find a nice girl and marry her.

Referring to any thing or person of a particular type

You also use the indefinite article when you are not referring to a particular thing or person, but just to any thing or person of a particular type.

I have never owned a pet .

This use is typical after verbs like 'want', 'look for', and 'need', and in questions and negatives.

Daisy refused to look for a job.

We need a leader urgently.

I can't afford a car.

The difference between this use and the use described in section 1 is that here you are not talking about a particular thing, so you cannot refer back to it with 'it', 'he', 'she', etc. If you want to refer again to the same sort of thing you still use the indefinite article, or more likely the pronoun 'one'.

I have never had a dog since I have not wanted one.

Get me a car. I want a car.

Using the indefinite article to describe things and people

You use the indefinite article not only to introduce something but to describe or give information about something that has already been introduced. This use is common with verbs like 'be', 'seem', 'look', or 'sound', or where the description immediately follows the noun.

He is after all a widely-published scholar, an expert in his field.

It is a frightful place.

This seemed a logical approach.

4. The indefinite article and 'one'

It is sometimes said that the indefinite article is really a weak form of the number 'one'. There is a little truth in this, because historically the indefinite article has developed from the number, and it sometimes still behaves like 'one'. However, in most cases it is not possible to replace the indefinite article with 'one'; the result would be very strange English. You can say 'You look an idiot', but you could not possibly say 'You look one idiot'. In the same way you can say 'It's a frightful place', but you would not say 'It's one frightful place'. So if you have no indefinite article in your language, it does not usually help to think of it as another way of saying 'one'. However, there are situations where the indefinite article clearly has an idea of 'one', in particular in the numbers 'a hundred', 'a thousand', 'a million', 'a dozen', and so on, when they are alone or followed by a noun.

It lasted a thousand years.

In this example you could replace a with 'one' with little difference in meaning, although 'one' is more emphatic. This is also true of words which refer to standard measurements.

The bridge is a meter wide.

Note the following points:

• When numbers are written as figures, the indefinite article is not included, so you write '100', '1000', but you say: 'a hundred', 'a thousand' or 'one hundred', 'one thousand'. When the figure 1 refers to 100 but is not the first part of the number, then you must say it as 'one': '2100' must be said as 'two thousand, one hundred'. Again, when saying a number between 1100 and 1999, you say 'one', not 'a': '1400' must be said as 'one thousand, four hundred'.

• You cannot use 'one' for emphasis in idiomatic expressions such as 'ninety-nine times out of a hundred' (i.e. 'nearly always') and 'a thousand times' (i.e. 'very many times'). These expressions are fixed.

• 'One' must be used when using two words referring to measurements, for example 'foot' and 'inch': 'It's one foot ten inches long'. When using just one word referring to a measurement, you use a unless you want to show you are being precise: 'It's a foot long'.

• Both the indefinite article and 'one' can be used with most fractions, but the indefinite article is more usual: 'a tenth' or 'one tenth,' 'a quarter' or 'one quarter'. 'One' is rarely used with 'half', and in an expression like 'half an hour', 'one' is not possible. As stated above in section 2, you normally use a, not 'one', when mentioning something for the first time. 'One' is only used before nouns in the following ways:

• when being precise or emphasizing that only one thing is involved

I have two younger brothers and one sister.

One look at John clearly showed her that such an approach would not do.

She was hopping on one foot.

Note that 'one more' is an emphatic way of saying 'another'.

I think he should be given one more chance.

• when contrasting one thing in a pair or a group with another

I went off with a bottle under one arm and some extra sheets under the other.

Note that 'one' can be used as a pronoun in a noun group beginning with the indefinite article. The noun group must have an adjective in it. You use a noun group like this when referring to something of the same kind as what you have just been talking about.

'The cage is too small, 'We're going to make a bigger one.