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The Indefinite article. The main functions: classifying, generic, numerical.
INDEF. ARTICLE
1. Classifying.
a. The speaker is characterizing a person, object or event as a certain class of things of the same kind. (I’m a school teacher)
b. Nouns can be accompanied by pre- or postmodifying attributes. (it’s a very interesting novel)
c. Used with predicative and appositive nouns (I’m a critic and I’m a novelist)
d. Used in predicative and adverbial phrases with like and as (I was trembling like a leaf)
e. Used to introduce some new information (One morning a new man was sitting at the table)
f. there is ( there is a shop)
2. Generic. (noun as a representative of class)
a. Meaning close to every/any (with plurals – no article, no IS)(A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines)
b. In proverbs expr.general truth (A cat has nine lives)
3. Numerical. (the idea of “oneness”) with:
a. Nouns denoting time, measure, weight (We stared at her for a minute or two)
b. Numerals hundred, thousand, million; dozen, score (I’ve told you that a hundred times)
c. After the negative not (not a word, not a trace. Not a word was spoken during her performance)
d. At a time, at a/one gulp, at a/one sitting (he drank it off at a gulp)
e. Between 2 noun groups in expressions denoting prices, salaries, speeds (90 pound a week)
4. wh,such,quiet + A+ N
too, som as + ADG+ A+ N

The Definite Article. (smth is know from general knowledge, from the situation, context) Functions: specifying and generic.
1. Specifying. Single out an object from all other objects of the same kind. The specification is carried out by means of:
a. the situation. (the speaker assumes the hearer can identify the objects in the environment they share) (shall I draw the curtains)
b. the preceding context. It may refer to the word or situation. She spoke aloud. The habit was certainly growing.
c. The meaning of the noun. Unique: the moon, the sun, the sky, the world, the Universe, the north pole, etc. BUT if they modified by a descriptive attribute – the INDEF article (A white moon smiled)
d. A restrictive modifier( by various kinds of attributes, modifiers)
2. Generic. Refers to a thing taken as a type, a genre. (The horse and mule live for 40 years).
a. Limited group: animals, plants, professions, occupations, scientific terms (there was nothing of the artist in her).
b. Man, woman – without
c. Substantivized adjectives and part II:(denote singular non-personal abstract notions)best, impossible, new, old, possible, unreal, unknown.(denote plural personal entities): aged, brave, blind, free, old, poor, needy, strong, weak.
d. With collective nouns: the police, the nobility, the aristocracy.
e. The Russians, the Americans, the catholics, the workers in the meaning ‘the whole body of’ (The Liberals is the second main party)
f. invention