The article is not prefixed to a proper name; as, Stubbs, Wiggins, Chubb, or Hobson, except for the sake of distinguishing a particular family, or description of persons; as, He is _a_ Burke; that is, one of the Burkes, or _a_ person resembling Burke. The article is sometimes also prefixed to a proper name, to point out some distinguished individual; as, _The_ Burke, or the great politician, or the resurrectionist, Burke.
The indefinite article is joined to substantives in the singular number only. We have heard people say, however, “He keeps _a_ wine-vaults;” or, to quote more correctly--waltz. The definite article may be joined to plurals also.
The definite article is frequently used with adverbs in the comparative and superlative degree: as, “_The_ longer I live, _the_ broader I grow;” or, as we have all heard the showman say, “This here, gentlemen and ladies, is the vonderful heagle of the sun; _the_ ’otterer it grows, _the_ higherer he flies!”
Substantives are either proper or common.
Proper names, or substantives, are the names belonging to individuals: as William, Birmingham.
These are sometimes converted into nicknames, or _im_proper names: as Bill, Brummagem.
Common names, or substantives, denote kinds containing many sorts, or sorts containing many individuals under them: as brute, beast, bumpkin, cherub, infant, goblin, &c.
Proper names, when an article is prefixed to them, are employed as common names: as, “They thought him a perfect _Chesterfield_; he quite astonished the _Browns_.”
Common names, on the other hand, are made to denote individuals, by the addition of articles or pronouns: as,
“There was _a_ little man, and he had _a_ little gun.”
Substantives are considered according to gender, number, and case; they are all of the third person when spoken _of_, and of the second when spoken _to_: as,
Matilda, fairest maid, who art In countless bumpers toasted, O let thy pity baste the heart Thy fatal charms have roasted!
The distinction between nouns with regard to sex is called Gender. There are three genders; the Masculine, the Feminine, and the Neuter.
The masculine gender belongs to animals of the male kind: as, a fop, a jackass, a boar, a poet, a lion.
The feminine gender is peculiar to animals of the female kind: as, a poetess, a lioness, a goose.