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An article is only one of the words "the", "a" or "an". These words are not adjectives because they cannot without loss of sense replace adjectives in all attributive contexts: for example, "the red box" cannot be changed to "the the box". The articles appear only before common nouns in Received English and must precede adjectives: "box the red" is parsed by English listeners and readers not as "the red box" but as "boxing" the red.

Like adjectives, the articles are dependent words. If the word they modify is removed they have no place. But they are different from adjectives.

cf Sydney Greenbaum, OXFORD REFERENCE GRAMMAR, oup 2000. "The definite and indefinite articles are determiners." "Determiners introduce noun phrases".

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15y ago

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