Articles are words such as "a," "an," and "the." How
do you know when to use or not use an article in front of a noun? In medical terminology,
this can seem complicated, for good reason.
Much of it has do with counting, basically. In VERY general terms, if you can
count it, it needs an article. Examples:
Incorrect: What is ester?
Correct: What is an ester?
Incorrect: What is a tissue?
Correct: What is tissue?
So, in the "ester" vs. "tissue," for example, you can count,
and say "I have 5 esters," but not "I have 5 tissues" (unless
they are Kleenexes, which are countable items). So, since you can count esters,
when you have one of them, you should say "an ester" (the "an"
signifying that you have ONE of the item; "an" is really a synonym for
one).
Or, try this: "I have a glass of milk." The reason it is not "I have a
glass of A milk" is because you can't count milk, but you can count glasses. Milk,
like tissue in medicine, is a "mass noun."
There can be confusion, as well, over whether to use “a” or “an.”
Simply put, “a” is used to precede words starting with a consonant or
a consonant sound, and “an” is used to precede words starting with a
vowel or a vowel sound. Seems easy enough, but the confusion begins over words
that start with the letters h, m, n, o, u, and x. Here’s a list to help:
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“A” is used before consonants:
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“An” is used before vowels:
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A cat
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An ignoramus
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A dog
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An odd plant
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A bug
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An underdog
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A golden cupid
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An apricot
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And now for the confusing part:
“A” is used before vowels with consonant properties in certain given
words (u, o):
A unicorn – the “u” in unicorn has a “y” quality,
which actually is a glide [j] sound and requires “a.”
Other examples include:
A union
A united front
A used napkin
A one-legged pirate – the “o” in one-legged was a “w”
quality and, therefore, requires “a.
“An” is used before consonants with vowel properties in certain given
words (h, x, m, n):
An hour – the “h” is soundless, unlike the “h” in
happy, and requires “an.”
An mRNA strand – the “m” begins with the short “e”
sound, like in the word empty, and requires “an.”
When the name of the letter is said as part of the word, as opposed to the letter’s
sound in the word, the name of the letter begins with an “e.”
Other letters besides m are f, h, n, l, r, s, and x.
Examples include:
x-ray
N-acetylglucosamine
H-bomb
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