Articles

Articles are used before nouns to define their usage in the sentence.

Articles are of two types.
• Indefinite articles
• Definite articles

Indefinite articles: ‘A’ and ‘An’ are called indefinite articles. These two articles are used with countable nouns and they do not refer to any specific noun.
Examples,
• A bottle of water, an orange, a woman in the window.

In the above examples, we are not talking about any specific type of water, orange or woman. Hence, we have used indefinite articles with them.

The article ‘a’ is used with the words that begin with a consonant sound and the article ‘an’ is used with the words that begin with a vowel sound.
Examples,
• I saw a tiger in the zoo.

Art4_1

• I saw an elephant in the zoo.

Art4_2

Definite article: ‘The’ is definite article and it is used to refer to definite or specific nouns. It is also used with nouns that are already talked about.
Examples,
• The oranges of Nagpur are very sweet.
• My father brought a puppy yesterday. The puppy is very cute.

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the most suitable option.

1. Please give me ______ white shirt; I don’t like _____ blue one.
a. the, the
b. a, a
c. the, a
d. an, a

2. Please suggest me ______ good book to read.
a. the
b. a
c. an
d. both a and the

3. He is ____ heir to _____ throne.
a. the, a
b. a, an
c. an, the
d. a, the

4. She is _____ United States senator.
a. a
b. an
c. the
d. no article needed

5. There were many flowers but I liked _____ red one.
a. a
b. the
c. an
d. no article needed

6. Harishchandra was ______ honest king.
a. the
b. a
c. an
d. no article needed

7. This movie is about _______ man who used to live on ______ island.
a. the, a
b. the, the
c. an, the
d. a, an

8. Who is ______ little boy in _____ picture?
a. the, a
b. the, the
c. a, the
d. a, a

9. He works as ____ only English teacher at this school.
a. A
b. An
c. The
d. No article needed

10. The mechanic couldn’t fix ______ car, so, we have to cancel ______ trip.
a. the, the
b. a, a
c. the, a
d. a, the