ARTICLES
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’)
iii) 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 for 'an' also)
Eg: He thinks he is a
Kalam / an Einstein.
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’:
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.
13)
Einstein is ___ Newton of our age.
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