Cyphernaut - Articles
In English, indefinite articles refer to the words a and an which appear before a singular noun. Generally speaking, a is used before nouns that begin with a consonant and an is used before a noun that begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) or a silent h. A definite article refers to the word the and precedes singular and plural nouns.
The Indo-European languages, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian have equivalents to the English indefinite and definite articles. Russian and East Asian languages, lack articles completely. Which means in Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean there is no differentiation between saying a car and the car. The table below presents an at-a-glance look at which languages covered by Cyphernaut, have articles and which do not. Those languages with articles (light green background) also have examples of each.
Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian all have the concept of gender for their nouns, thus the articles change with the gender and number of the noun it modifies. For our purposes, the plural of the indefinite article will be presented as well, which is the equivalent of the English word some. Abbreviations used in the table are:
- M for masculine
- F for feminine
- N for neutral (German)
- SG for singular
- PL for plural
Notes:
In German, the indefinite and definite articles vary depending on the case. There are four cases in German: the nominative; the accusative; the dative; and the genitive. Only the nominative is presented in the table. The other cases will be presented on this page.
In French, in addition to indefinite and definite articles, there are partitive articles. Partitive articles indicate an unspecified quantity of a noun have no real equivalent in English, although some and any are used in a similar manner. The partitive article is covered on this page.
| Articles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Indefinite | Definite |
| English |
SG - a a car SG - an an egg - used before nouns that begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) or a silent h PL - some some cars |
SG - the the car PL - the the cars |
| Español |
SG M - un un hombre (a man) SG F - una una mujer (a woman) PL M - unos unos hombres (some men) PL F - unas unas mujeres (some women) |
SG M - el el hombre (the man) SG F - la la mujer (the woman) PL M - los los hombres (the men) PL F - las las mujeres (the women) |
| Deutsch |
*Nominative Case Only SG M - ein ein Apfel (an apple) SG F - eine eine Klasse (a class) SG N - ein ein Buch (a book) *There are no plurals. |
*Nominative Case Only SG M - der der Hund (the dog) SG F - die die Katze (the cat) SG N - das das Kino (the cinema) PL M - die die Freunde (the friends) PL F - die die Karten (the maps) PL N - die die Autos (the autos) |
| Français |
SG M - un un avion (a plane) SG F - une une voiture (a car) PL M - des (day) des avions (some planes) PL F - des (day) des voitures (some cars) |
SG M - le le chien (the dog) SG F - la la chèvre (the goat) PL M - les (lay) les chiens (the dogs) PL F - les (lay) les chèvres (the goats) * - le and la become l' when the noun begins with an h or a vowel - l'avion (the plane) |
| Portuguese |
SG M - um (oong) um carro (a car) SG F - uma (oo-ma) uma estrela (a star) PL M - uns (oongsh) uns carros (some cars) PL F - umas (oo-mash) umas estrelas (some stars) |
SG M - o (oo) o avião (the plane) SG F - a (a) a maçã (the apple) PL M - os (oosh) os aviões (the planes) PL F - as (ash) as maçãs (the apples) |
| Italiano |
SG M - un un limone (a lemon) SG M - uno uno stadio (a stage) - used with nouns that start with s + consonant, z, gn, pn, ps, x or y SG F - una una mela (an apple) SG F - un' un’ automobile (an automobile) - used with nouns that start with a vowel |
SG M - il il teatro (the theater) SG M - lo lo zaino (the backpack) - used with nouns that start with s + consonant, z, gn, pn, ps, x or y SG M - l' l'autobus (the bus) - used with nouns that begin with a vowel SG F - la la casa (the house) SG F - l' l'anatra (the duck) - used with nouns that begin with a vowel PL M - i i teatri (the theaters) PL M - gli gli autobus (the buses) - used with nouns that start with s + consonant, z, gn, pn, ps, x or y PL F - le le casas (the houses) |
| Русский | Articles do not exist in Russian. | Articles do not exist in Russian. |
| 中文 | Articles do not exist in Chinese. | Articles do not exist in Chinese. |
| 日本語 | Articles do not exist in Japanese. | Articles do not exist in Japanese. |
| 한국어 | Articles do not exist in Korean. | Articles do not exist in Korean. |