Article

What's an article? I was asking myself this very [question:answer] in the post office yesterday, [standing:staring] in line waiting to sign for, as it so happens, an article. A postal article. Not the postal article. Now before we get ahead of ourselves, an article in English is a [word:work] that precedes a noun, and simply indicates specificity. This [sounds:sums] quite complicated, and to be honest, it's quite complicated to say without spraying everyone within 15 feet, but the concept's quite [simple:complex] . The definite article in English is the word "the", and indicates a specific thing or type; for example, the train is an hour late. By contrast, the indefinite article in English is any of the words "a", "an" or "some", and the indefinite article indicates a non-specific thing; for example, would you please pass me an [apple:banana] . We always preceed a word with "a" if it doesn't start with a vowel sound.