indefinite article

English

Noun

indefinite article (plural indefinite articles)

1. (grammar) A word preceding a noun to indicate that the noun refers to any member of the class of objects named by the noun.
   • 1884, Napoleone Perini, “On the Use of the Indefinite Article”, in An Italian Conversation Grammar, page 98:

     The English Indefinite Article, "a" or "an", is more frequently used that the Italian Indefinite Article, "un", "uno", "una".

   • 1921, Harry Egerton Ford, “Part II. Morphology”, in Modern Provençal Phonology and Morphology:

     In the indefinite article, we must note the plural in i, due to the influence of the plural li of the definite article[.]

   • 2018, Kory Stamper, Word by Word, page 28:

     The main literary dialect of ancient Greek ... has a definite article, but no indefinite article.

Usage notes

• In English, this term can be represented as a (before a consonant sound) or an (before a vowel sound) in the singular; in the plural, an indefinite article isn't used at all.

Antonyms

• definite article

Hypernyms

• article

Translations

word preceding a noun to indicate any member of the class of objects

• Belarusian: нявы́значаны арты́кль m (njavýznačany artýklʹ)
• Bulgarian: неопредели́телен член m (neopredelítelen člen)
• Catalan: article indefinit
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不定冠詞／不定冠词 (zh) (bùdìng guàncí)

• Czech: neurčitý člen m
• Dutch: lidwoord van onbepaaldheid n, onbepaald lidwoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: artikolo nedefinida, nedefinida artikolo
• Finnish: epämääräinen artikkeli (fi)
• French: article indéfini (fr) m
• Galician: artigo indefinido m
• German: unbestimmter Artikel (de) m
• Greek: αόριστο άρθρο n (aóristo árthro)
• Hungarian: határozatlan névelő (hu)
• Icelandic: óákveðinn greinir (is) m, óákv. gr. m
• Irish: alt éiginnte
• Italian: articolo indeterminativo (it) m
• Japanese: 不定冠詞 (ja) (ふていかんし, futei kanshi)
• Korean: 부정관사(不定冠詞) (ko) (bujeonggwansa)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: эс тухайлах ялгац гишүүн (es tuxajlax jalgac gišüün), тодорхой бус ялгац гишүүн (todorxoj bus jalgac gišüün)

• Norman: articl'ye îndéfinnie f
• Polish: rodzajnik nieokreślony (pl) m
• Portuguese: artigo indefinido (pt) m
• Romanian: articol nehotărât (ro) n
• Russian: неопределённый арти́кль m (neopredeljónnyj artíklʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: alt neo-chinnteach
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неодређени члан m

  Roman: neodređeni član m

• Spanish: artículo indefinido (es) m, artículo indeterminado (es)
• Swedish: obestämd artikel c
• Turkish: belirsiz harfitarif, belirsiz tanımlık
• Ukrainian: неви́значений арти́кль m (nevýznačenyj artýklʹ)
• Vietnamese: mạo từ bất định, mạo từ không xác định, mạo từ không hạn định
• Welsh: bannod amhenodol f