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the other noun premodifiers. The exceptions to this rule are as follows:
a) the definite article may be preceded by the predeterminers alt and both:
Are you going to cook all the cakes yourself?
Both the answers were good.
b) the indefinite article may be preceded by the predeterminers what, such, quite:
What a sight I am in this hat!
You were such a queen, and I was such a nothing!
You are quite a scholar.
) the indefinite article is placed after adjectives preceded by the adverbs too, as, so:
That was too difficult a problem for the child to solve.
It’s as good an excuse as any for breaking it up.
I’ve never seen so miserable a creature as Jane was at the moment.
The use of the indefinite article
The main functions of the indefinite article are classifying, generic and numerical.
§ 187. In its classifying function the article serves to refer an object to the class or group of objects of the
same kind.
We saw a speck in the distance. It was a ship.
I am a school teacher.
Somewhere a telephone began to ring.
The door opened and a man entered.
Janet lived alone in a small shabby house.
He was a man I would be glad to spend half my time in hell with.
The noun preceded by the classifying indefinite article may be accompanied by pre- or postmodifying
attributes. The indefinite article is used so long as the reference to the class is preserved, as can be seen from
the examples below.
I’ve read a novel.
It is a very interesting novel.
It is a novel by a modem writer.
It is a teenager novel about American boys.
It is an exciting novel which is very suitable for staging.
But: It is the novel our teacher mentioned at the last lesson.
Though mostly used with counts the indefinite article may be used in the classifying function with non-
counts, unique and proper nouns.*
* For details see § 192, 198, 201.
The moon rose early.
It was a very pale siver moon.
§ 188. In its generic function the indefinite article implies that the object denoted by the noun is spoken of
as a representative of the class, and therefore what is said about the thing, animal, person, or notion mentioned,
refers to any object of the same kind, as in:
An oblong has four sides, a triangle has three sides.
A tram runs on rails, a bus does not.
A horse has four legs.