what are Articles (A, An, The) English grammar ielts exam
Articles are the demonstrative adjectives. We use articles before countable and
uncountable nouns.
Countable nouns are things we count.
Ex; One banana, two bananas
Uncountable things / nouns are things we cannot count
Ex: Sand, Rice
We can use a / an with singular countable nouns.
E.g.: a student, an umbrella, an orange.
Article ‘a’ is used before the word which starts with a consonant sound and a is called indefinite article because it leaves indefinite the person or thing spoken of;
E.g.: a bat, a cow, a dog, a rose, a doctor, a european, a one rupee note.
Article ‘an’ is used before the word which starts with a vowel sound and an is
called indefinite article because it leaves indefinite the person or thing spoken of; E.g.: an apple, an egg, an ice cream, an underpass, an hour (‘h’ is silent), an essay, an MLA (sound of the letter ‘M’ / em/ ).
Article ‘The’ is called definite article.
‘The’ is used when we are mentioning of one particular thing
E.g.: I sat on the chair nearest to the door
v We use ‘the’ when there is only one of some thing.(Universal objects)
The earth goes round the sun.
The moon goes round the earth.
v ‘The’ is used before the names of peaks, oceans, seas, deserts…
E.g., the Mount Everest, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Thar desert
v ‘The’ is used before musical instruments
The flute, the violin, the guitar, the saxophone
v ‘The’ is used before superlative degree.
E.g. : The Nile is the longest river in the world
Raju is the tallest boy in the class
v ‘The’ is used before ordinal numbers
E.g.: the first, the second….
v ‘The’ is used before directions
The south, the north, the east etc.
Omission of articles
- The article is omitted before the names of the persons or places.
Exercise
Fill in the blanks with suitable articles;-
- There are seven days in ……….week.
- It wasn’t your fault it was …………accident
- t.
- I eat ……..banana every day.
- There is ……….hair in my soup.
- I am looking for ……….job.
- It was ………….good suggestion.
- I am ………optimist.
- I had ………….. Sandwich and ………apple for breakfast.
- I am going to see ……………..doctor.
- Do you want ……….egg.
- What is …………..name of that man we met yesterday?
- ……….sun is a star.
- Which is …………highest peak in the world?
- Can you tell me where ……….room No 25 is please? It is on……………second floor.
- Do you often listen to …………Radio?
No, infact I haven’t …………Radio?
Key answers
1.a 2. an 3.a 4.a 5.the 6.a 7.an 8.a, an 9.a(not particular) 10. An 11.the 12.the, the 13.the 14.the, the 15.the, the
