indefinite: not (yet) identified by the speaker and hearer(s). Noun phrases in English and many other languages are marked definite or indefinite by means of an article. The definite article in English is "the"; the indefinite article is "a" or "an". For example, the phrase "a woman who sells tortillas" is indefinite, since it is marked with the indefinite article "a", implying that the speaker or hearer (or both) don't know which tortilla vendor is being referred to (and perhaps it doesn't matter). Often when a person or thing is mentioned for the first time in a discourse, it is marked as indefinite, but from that point onward it has been identified and so is marked definite. For example, "Yesterday a man selling plants came by the house. I wanted a rose, but the man told me that there weren't any these days." [Spanish: indefinido]
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