What is the function of "a" and "the"when use in the sentence? When is the right time to use "The" and "a"?

Question

If "a" and "the" are articles, What part of speech do they belong? and if they belong to a specific part of speech, when is the proper time to use them?

Answer 1

as you said, "a" and "the" are articles.
but the "a" article is used for indefinite objects and singular ones. eg: a book. that means anyone.

but when you use "the", that shows that you are talking about something definite: "the book", only this one and not another.
"the" is also used for plural definite purposes.
when the plural is indefinite, you don't add any article: "books".

hope that helped.

Answer 2

Use `a' or `an' when you mean "One of many" For eg. Chris is a boy (one of many). Can also be used as a title : A President,

Use `the' when the meaning is specific. For eg. Bombay is the most crowded city in India. (I don't know if it is. Just an example) Can also be used if the name of a country is plural. Eg. The United States.

To be noted : Use "An" in place of `a' when it precedes a vowel SOUND, not just a vowel (a,e,i,o,u). Eg. An honour, An MRI, A UFO, A habit, An habitual offender.

Ahhhh! English!

Answer 3

Articles are adjectives. that's the only part of your question that i can answer in an unconfusing way :) as for the rest here's a link that'll probably help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_%28grammar%29

Answer 4

a for one thing
the for proper thing