Articles: A, An, The

 Articles: A, An, The

USE OF 'A' AND 'AN'

Use of a and an has a simple rule to follow. All we have to do is to listen to the phonic sounds. When a singular noun begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) sound, we use an and if the sound is that of a consonant then we use a.

Let's understand the use of a and an with the help of examples.

a letter

a boy

a banana

a uniform

an umbrella

an honest girl

an aeroplane

an orange

A.  Fill in the blanks with 'a' or 'an'.

(Hint: Remember, it is the sound that matters and not the letter)

1. Rahul asked for........ cup of milk.

2. It takes........... hour to reach the school.

3. If you add...........onion to the gravy, it tastes good.

4. He lives in ......... hut.

5. Mother gave me.............. ice cream.

6. He ate........... egg and..........toast for breakfast.

7. I decided to go for........... movie.

8. I bought............ notebook from the market.

Let's pronounce the following.

uniform, European, unicorn: All these words begin with the phonic sound -yu, which is a consonant sound. Hence, we say 'a uniform, a European, a unicorn'.

honour, honest: Both these words begin with the phonic sound-o, a vowel sound. Hence, we say 'an honest man', 'it's an honour because his silent in these words.

More about 'a' and 'an'.

a and an are called indefinite articles. This means 'a' and 'an' are used when we do not talk about a particular person, place or thing.

Examples: He lives in a city.

Can one guess about which city the sentence is? No, it is not clear at all. Therefore we use 'a'.

USE OF 'THE'

The is a definite article. We use the when we refer to a particular person, thing or place. In short, we are clear about the person, place or thing.

Examples: (i) He lives in the city of Agra.

(ii) The hospital is near our house.

B. Fill in the blanks with suitable articles 'a', 'an', or 'the' where required. red polo neck t-shirt we bought yesterday.

1. Ankur borrowed

2. I like to take muffin and fruit to school.

3. It's honour to be monitor of the class.

4. I found. pen I lost yesterday.

5. Surya is player.

Understanding the use of the.

'The' is not used before proper nouns.

'The' is used before the names of:

(i) Mountain ranges, rivers, oceans

the Himalayas

the Ganga

the Indian Ocean