Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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Part of speech
or grammatical category:
Word, term
or idea:
Other notes on
class or type:
Level of difficulty
1 elementary
5 intermediate
9 advanced
Adjective
a and an
while a and an are adjectives,
they are also classified as articles,
and specifically as indefinite articles
2
Explanation and discussion:
  1. A and an are adjectives, which carry the meaning and idea of "one, one of several, any one, or some one." In Old English an meant one and a is just a short form of an. It may help if you think of a and an as standing for the word one. But, be careful, if you are referring to a unique individual or item you must use the.
  2. In the case of two or more nouns, we often use an article in front of both unless they refer to the same thing or person.
  3. A and an are also used before collective nouns and nouns which while plural act as a singular.
Example(s):
  1. "I want a sandwich" is the same as "I want one sandwich".
  2. For example, many years ago I was "An Officer and Gentleman". Since I was only one person, that is the form we must use, as the term "An Officer and A Gentleman" would refer to two people.
    3. Note that the following are either collectives or plurals acting as singular nouns:
    • a hundred dollars
    • an army of angry parents
    • a class of students
Note(s):
.
Exercise(s):
1) Please give me _____ glass of wine.
2) Jack Welch, _____ chairman and _____ CEO of GE, is perhaps the most admired businessman in the world today.