Articles not included as Parts of Speech

[anupumh]

Hi,

English Language contains 8 parts of speech (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections).

Why Articles (a, an, the) are not a part of it?

I was asked this question by one of my students and I had no satisfactory answer to it, expect that the articles are a type of adjectives as they modify nouns.

Can anybody provide a better explanation?

Thanks

[mara_ce]

Have a look at this:
ELC Study Zone: Adjectives and Adverbs

[redcrows]

You could think of a/an and the as determiners which describe nouns. A special type of adjective... "A/an" usually refers to one "thing or event", while "the" can refer to one or more things or events but it refers to them specifically.
I want to test drive a(1) car today. or.. I want to test drive(many or some) cars today.
The car must be fuel efficient. or.. The cars must be fuel efficient. Specifically, a car or cars which I want to test drive must be fuel efficient.
I hope this helps!