Throughout our trajectory as students, more precisely when we attend Basic Education, we have established familiarity with all grammar classes. In this way, they, like so many other issues related to grammar, become important resources that we use to build our discourse, either through orality or through writing.
In order to realize how real this is, it is enough to stick to the discourse analysis that follows:
The boys arrived exhausted.
The – definite article
boys - noun
arrived – verb (expressed in the 3rd person plural of the past perfect tense)
exhausted - adjective
It seems that such elements, similar to a puzzle, come together and form a coherent whole – materialized through the idea that we want to convey.
However, it is worth mentioning that such a junction does not manifest itself randomly, each piece (such as, for example, the grammar classes) performs a specific function. Thus, emphasizing the case of articles, we have that they precede the noun in order to determine or indeterminate it. Thus, when we say “the girl” or “a girl”, we see such an occurrence.
In order to further deepen our knowledge regarding the study of that class, let us make sure of the circumstances in which they manifest themselves:
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* The definite articles, being these in the singular, can indicate a whole species.
Loyalty is a human virtue.
The work dignifies the man.
* The use of the article serves to substantiate words belonging to another grammatical class.
We found out why so much irony.
The yes is always welcome to the ears.
* The indefinite article can indicate the idea of numerical approximation, as well as give expressive force to a noun.
Her appearance was about twenty years old.
This whole situation is a shame.
* In order to determine personative proper names, when they are in the plural, the use of the article becomes recurrent.
The Andrade Guimarães, The Incas, The Mayans.
* After the numeral “both”, the mandatory use of the article becomes evident.
Both students obtained an excellent result in the assessments.
* Optionally, we verified the use of the article before personative proper names, in case the idea represents affection or familiarity.
Rodrigo is my inseparable friend /Rodrigo is my inseparable friend.
Priscilla is the eldest of the sisters / Priscilla is the eldest of the sisters.
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team
Grammar - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "The articles... analyzing your circumstances of use"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/os-artigos-analisando-suas-circunstancias-uso.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
