ARTICLES
a, an, the adjectives
a, an
indefinite articles
the
definite article
a,e,i,o,u 5 vowels
remaining 21 alphabets consonants
Usage of indefinite article ‘a’ :
1) in the sense ‘one’
Eg: a boy, a pen, a dog, a metre
2) before words beginning with
consonants
Eg: a cow, a bag, a fan
3) before words beginning with vowels
producing consonant sound
Eg: i) a one – rupee coin (‘w’ sound as
in ‘won’)
ii) a university,
a unit, a useful thing, a European,
[‘y’ sound as in ‘you’]
a ewe (pronounced as
‘you’ = female sheep)
4) in the sense ‘every’
Eg: A cow is a useful animal (every
cow).
5) before names of persons when they are
strangers to the speaker
Eg: A Mr. Rao called for you
yesterday.
6) before names of persons when used for comparison
applicable
Eg: He thinks he is a Kalam / an
Einstein. for ‘an’ also
Usage of
indefinite article ‘an’:
1) in the
sense ‘one’
Eg: an
elephant, an ice-cream, an ox
2) before
words beginning with vowels
Eg: an
apple, an egg, an ink pen, an orange, an umbrella
3) before
words beginning with unsounded (silent) ‘h’
Eg: an hour,
an honour, an heir, an honest man
4) before
abbreviations starting with A,E,F,H,I,L,M,N,O,R,S,X.
Eg: an AIR
employee, an ECG report, An FCI employee, an HAL employee, an IAS officer, an
LIC agent, an MLA, an NGO, an ONGC worker, an RTC bus, an STD booth, an X ray.
Usage of
definite article ‘the’:
Note:
the = da before
consonants/consonant sounds
the = di before
vowels/ vowel sounds
1) in the
sense ‘one’ or ‘many’
Eg: the boy,
the boys
2) before
common noun to represent entire species
Eg: The cow
is a useful animal (all cows).
3) before
names of races, geographical names (such as rivers, seas, oceans, gulfs, bays,
straits, mountain ranges, islands etc), holy books newspapers, famous
buildings/monuments.
Eg: the
French, the Indians, the Ganga, the Pacific, The Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of
Bengal, the Pak Strait, the Himalayas( the Everest = x), the Andamans, the
bible, the Deccan Chronicle, the Taj Mahal.
4) Before
Superlatives
Eg: the
best, the tallest, the most intelligent
5) before Comparatives
(when ‘than’ is not used)
Eg: The sooner,
the better.(the sooner than= x)
The harder you work, the richer you
become.
6) before
adjectives used as nouns
Eg: the rich
are happier than the poor [the rich = rich people (The rich people = x) ]
7) before
nouns which are repeated for the second time in a paragraph/context.
Eg: I went
to a forest. In the forest I saw a lion. The lion was hungry.
A forest = some forest
The forest =
that particular forest
8) to refer
to a particular person, object, place etc.
Eg: He is
the boy who got the first rank.
9) before
objects that are unique
Eg: the sun,
the stars, the Taj
10) before
ordinal numbers
Eg: the
first, the second
11) before
descriptive names
Eg: the
United States of America, the Madhya Pradesh
12) before
abbreviations of countries
Eg: the UK,
the US
13) before
schools, colleges, hospitals, temples, churches etc if they are visited for
secondary purpose (other than usual/primary work). It refers to the buildings,
surroundings etc.)
14) in of
the plural forms of a proper noun to refer to a family.
Eg: the
Raos, the Reddys (i.e. the Rao family, the Reddy family) etc.
15) in front
of names to make a comparison within the group.
Eg: He is
the Hitler of our class.
EXERCISES
1. We want
_____________help of ___________few volunteers.
2. This is
_____ unfortunate incident.
3. After
____ year or two, ________ question can be considered.
4) My father
is _____ bank officer. He goes to_______
bank at 9 O’ clock in the morning.
5) I saw
________ one-eyed beggar.
6) There is
_____ book lying on ________ table.
7) I’ve
kept________egg for you on the table. You can eat ________ egg in the evening.
8) Yesterday
______ European called at my office.
9) He is
________ MA but his brother is ______ BA.
10) I saw
______ hawker selling his wares in the street.
11) This is
______ historic occasion.
12) The
children visited ______ sacred place.
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