articles

2. What are Articles?
In English, articles define/modify the nouns
in a sentence. There are two kinds of articles:

3. The use of indefinite article ‘a’ ‘an’
The indefinite articles are used:
•before a noun which has not been introduced earlier
Example: Once upon a time there lived a farmer in the village.
(The speaker is introducing the ‘farmer’ for the first time in the
story.)
•before unspecified singular noun
Example: Can you get me a book? (The speaker is not
asking for particular book.)

4. • before a singular noun while defining essential properties
of a class species
Example: A bird has a beak, wings and feathers.(defining essential
features of the entire class of birds)
• before a singular object in the sense of ‘one’
Example: She earns Rs 10,00,000 in a year. (in one year)
• with some phrases indicating quantity
a few days, a lot of money, a plenty of, a great deal of

5. •before quantity expressions which refer to certain material
objects like paper, milk, water, information, news etc
Example: a bag of rice, a loaf of bread, a piece of bread, a glass of
milk, a piece of information
•before dozen, hundred, thousand, million etc. though the
noun is plural
Example: a million dollars, a thousand rupees, a dozen
•with a proper noun is used as a common nouns
Example: He thinks he is a Napoleon.
He thinks he is a Tendulkar.

6. What is the difference between ‘a’ and ‘an’?
Both ‘a’ ‘an’ are indefinite articles. But they are
used in different contexts depending on the sound
patterns not spellings.
 ‘a’ is used before singular countable noun before
a consonant sound.
‘an’ is used before singular countable noun before
a vowel sound.

7. The article ‘a’ is used when the noun starts with a consonant
sound
Example: a table, a girl, a book, a BSc degree
It is also used incases where the word beginning with a
vowel letter has a consonant sound
Example : a University, a Union, a European
The article ‘an’ is used when the noun starts with a vowel
sound
Example: an eye, an undercover agent, an elephant, an orange,
an incident, an accident, an event, an interesting story

8. EXCEPTIONS
a University
a Uniform
a Unit
a Union
a European
a Useful thing
a year
a one-rupee note
a one-eyed beggar

9. an honorable person
an honest man
an hour
an NCC officer
an SI
an MA
an MLA
an MBBS
an ACP
an MSC

10. •before a noun which has already been introduced earlier
Example: Once upon a time’ there lived a farmer in the
village. The farmer had a son and daughter.
• before some geographical areas and entitles like seas,
rivers, oceans, group of islands, mountain ranges which do
not have clear political boundaries
Example: the Himalayas, the Deccan Plateau, the Pacific Ocean.
•with names of some countries which historically a group of
territories
Example: the United States of America, the Netherlands ,
the UAE, the UK.
The use of the definite article ‘The’

11. •before nouns which are unique and only one of their kind
Example: the Sun, the Internet ,the earth, the universe
•before superlative adjectives
Example: the most difficult question, the highest peak, the
richest , the sweetest , the tallest, the strongest
•before common nouns which are made unique by the use
of adjectives such as first, primary, main etc
Example: The main reason, the primary target

12. •before the nouns when they refer to entire class or species
in order to make the referent of the noun generic
Example: The tiger is danger to becoming extinct
•before socio-cultural institutions and industries
Example : The media, the government, the news paper
•before adjectives which used as nouns
Example: using ‘the poor’ means ‘the poor people’
•before the names of holy books
Example : The Quran, The Mahabharata, The Bible

13. •before proper nouns to represent a family
Example : The Birlas, The Tatas, The Smiths
•before the musical instruments
Example : The tabla, the guitar, the flute