Articles the, a, an

Gist. English has two articles: definite the and indefinite a/an. An is not a separate word but the form of a before a vowel sound, so both share one lemma. Conditions and exceptions. An article is a determiner on a noun or on an adjective used as a noun (the rich). The letter a as a name or list item (a), Type A, vitamin A) is not an article: NOUN, SYM or LS. Examples. the book; a book; an apple; an hour. In UD. the: DET, DT, Definite=Def|PronType=Art. a/an: DET, DT, Definite=Ind|PronType=Art, lemma a. Relation — det. EWT 2.18: the 11 017, a 4 724, an 618 — all like this. Sources. Poutsma GLME vol. 3, Ch. XXXI §1–3 (books/p/po/poutsma-1904-grammar-late-modern-english/text-3.md, pp. 533–535 = book pp. 513–515); UD docs/_en/feat/Definite.md, feat/PronType.md.

rule: en.nominal.the-feats
what: the definite article the — DET DT with Definite=Def and PronType=Art
match: d[lemma=the, upos=DET]
require: d[xpos=DT, feats.Definite=Def, feats.PronType=Art]
severity: error
source: Poutsma GLME III Ch. XXXI §1–2; UD en Definite, PronType

rule: en.nominal.a-an-feats
what: the indefinite article a/an — DET DT with lemma a, Definite=Ind, PronType=Art
match: d[form=a|an, upos=DET]
require: d[lemma=a, xpos=DT, feats.Definite=Ind, feats.PronType=Art]
severity: error
source: Poutsma GLME III Ch. XXXI §1, §3; UD en Definite, PronType

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