There is considerable variation in the expression of definiteness across languages: some languages use a definite Article (which can be a free form, a phrasal Clitic, or an Affix on the noun) to mark a definite noun phrase. Examples are:
In contrast, the great majority of languages does not have a definite article. Some examples are Chinese, Japanese, Finnish, and all the Slavic languages (with the unique exception of Bulgarian). When necessary, languages of this kind may indicate definiteness by other means such as demonstratives.
It is common for definiteness to interact with the marking of case in certain syntactic contexts. In many languages direct objects (DOs) receive distinctive marking only if they are definite. For example in Turkish, the DO in the sentence adamları gördüm (meaning "I saw the men") is marked with the suffix -ı (indicating definiteness). The absence of the suffix means that the DO is indefinite ("I saw men").