Title: Articles (a, an, the)
Author: WordPress.org
Published: March 2, 2021
Last modified: April 5, 2021

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# Articles (a, an, the)

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 **Highlight:** Include definite and indefinite articles in your documentation.

Articles modify nouns. _The_ is a definite article, and is used to define specific
or particular nouns.
 _A_ and _an_ are indefinite articles, and are used to define
non-specific or non-particular nouns.

For example, ‘I watched _the_ video.’ Here, _the_ particular video is being watched.
‘
I watched _a_ video.’ Here, it may be any video that is being watched.

Including articles in your writing is essential for overall simplicity of language
and ease of understanding.

**Examples of articles**

 * A document
 * An hour
 * A link
 * A project
 * An open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original
   source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open
   Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project
 * An issue
 * A new issue

Using _a_ or _an_ depends on the pronunciation of the succeeding word. Basically,
_a_ is used before any consonant sound, and _an_ is used before any vowel sound.

The article (_a_ or _an_) that goes along with an abbreviation depends on whether
the term is pronounced like an acronym or an initialism. For example, _an_ APIAPI
An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows
programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined 
ways., _an_ IDE, _a_ URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the
Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, _a_ CMS are the articles that
go with these terms.

For more information, see [Abbreviations](https://make.wordpress.org/docs/style-guide/language-grammar/abbreviations/).

## Additional resources

 * [The Purdue Online Writing Lab – Using Articles](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/using_articles.html)

First published

March 2, 2021

Last updated

April 5, 2021

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