Articles

(A) The Indefinite Article a /an is used

i. before a singular countable noun mentioned for the first time.
e.g. He has a blue suit.
Betty saw an owl last night.

ii. when the listener does not know which particular person or thing we mean.
e.g. Please give me a pen, Mary.

N.B. “a” is used before a noun beginning with a consonant sound.

e.g. a boy
a one-way road
a European
a uniform
“an” is used before a noun beginning with a vowel sound.
e.g. an egg
an hour
an MTR train

(B) The Definite Article the is used

i. to refer to a noun that has been mentioned before or that is known to both the
speaker and the listener.
e.g. He has a dog and a cat. The dog is friendly, but the cat is not.
The man you met just now is my uncle.

ii. before a comparative or superlative adjective.

e.g. Paul is the fatter one.
Compare: Paul is fatter than David.
Andrew is the fattest boy in our class.

iii. before an ordinal number.

e.g. The second chapter is very interesting.

iv. before a noun that is unique.

e.g. The sun rises in the east.

v. with some adjectives to talk about a specific group of people.

 e.g. We should be more concerned with the poor and the sick.

vi. before musical instruments.

e.g. I started playing the piano when I was six.

vii. before names of buildings, mountain ranges, seas, rivers, certain countries which
start with UNITED or end in ‘s’, and groups of islands.
e.g. The Lee Theatre has been pulled down.
I really want to climb the Himalayas.
Atlantic Ocean separates the United States from the United Kingdom.

(C) No article is used

i. with plural nouns or uncountable nouns in general.
e.g. Girls like to receive flowers.
Milk is good for both children and adults.

ii. before names of games, months, seven days of a week, festivals, languages and
meals.
e.g. John does not play football.
Mr. White is learning Chinese.

iii. before words like bed, church, hospital, prison, school, university, etc. when
these places are used or visited for their primary purposes.
e.g. They go to church on Sundays.
I go to bed at ten o’clock every night.

Exercise 1
Fill in the blanks with ‘a’ or ‘an’.
1. He is too busy ________ person to take long holidays.
2. Johnny wants to make ________ trip to India.
3. Remember to add ________ ‘S’ if the word is plural.
4. The workers have formed ________ union.
5. ________ unusual thing happened last night.
6. China is such ________ fascinating country.
7. ‘ ________ Mr. Gray came to your office this morning. I haven’t seen him before,’
said the secretary to her boss.
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8. These eggs cost $12 ________ dozen.
9. He is such ________ honorable man that I’ve ever met.
10. What ________ pretty face she has!

Exercise 2
Fill in the blanks with ‘the’ where necessary. Put a cross ( X ) if no article is needed.
1. Peter has just returned from ________ States.
2. We are not going to ________ school today. It’s a holiday.
3. We usually have ________ dinner at 7 o’clock.
4. We went to Joe’s birthday party last night. ________ food was nice.
5. Who is ________ headmaster of this school, please?
6. We are spending our holiday in ________ Philippines this summer.
7. My father plays ________ tennis every Sunday morning.
8. It’s fun travelling by ________ air.
9. Few people have been to ________ Himalayas.
10. Visitor: Where’s ________ office, please?
Girl: It’s on ________ fifth floor.

Exercise 3
Add ‘the’ where necessary. The number in brackets tells you the number of articles
you should use.
1. (2) Pick up book on floor , will you ?

2. (2) I can’t open moneybox . I’ve lost key .

3. (2) Betty , write your name on cover of book .

4. (1) What is price of this shirt ?

5. (2) I bought a dog and a cat yesterday. Cat escaped last

night , and dog keeps barking at me .

6. (1) Will you show me ring on your finger ?

7. (2) My car is missing . There are some bottles in car . Bottles

 contain petrol .

8. (2) Answer telephone , David . I’m washing car .

9. (2) Mummy , door handle of car has come off .

10. (1) Mr. Chan’s car hit a tree yesterday . Car was damaged .

Exercise 4
Fill in the blanks with ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’ or ‘X’.
1. He told us that he would be back in ________ hour.
2. ‘Will you be free on ________ Sunday?’ Winnie asked Paul.
3. Don’t hesitate to ask him for ________ advice if you need it.
4. Her aunt lives on ________ Lamma Island, doesn’t she?
5. The ambulance men are attending to ________ injured.
6. There’s ________ U-turn ahead.
7. Mrs. Chan has ________ 8-year-old daughter.
8. I have known ________ Lees for many years.
9. Mrs Lee said to Diana, ‘I’m cooking the dinner. Please keep ________ eye on your
little brother.’
10. I can’t move this table. Will you please give me ________ hand?

Exercise 5
Correct the following sentences. Corrections should be done as follows.

*words needing to be changed - (a) underline the incorrect word

(b) write the correct form of the word above it
** missing word - (a) mark the position of the missing word with a ‘^’
(b) write the missing word above it
*** extra word - put a cross ‘X’ on the word you wish to cross out

1. ** They live on 11th floor of this building.

2. * She finished her lunch in the hurry.

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3 ** Elisa is doing MBA course.
4. *** Mrs. Wong is out of the town now. She will be back in the evening.

5. ** Who is playing violin in the music room?

6. * He has gone home because he has the headache.

7. ** You can have good view of the harbour from the Peak.

8. *** I met Sally by a chance this morning.

9. *** My sister sometimes goes to school on the foot.

10. * In a beginning, she was against our plan, but then she changed her mind.

Answer
Exercise 1
1. a 2. a 3. an 4. a 5. A 6. a 7. A 8. a 9. an 10. a

Exercise 2
1. the 2. X 3. X 4. The 5. the 6. the 7. X 8. X 9. the 10. the, the

Exercise 3
1. the book the floor 2. the moneybox the key 3. the cover the book
4. the price 5. The cat the dog the ring 6. the car The bottles
7. the telephone the car 8. the door the car 9. The car

Exercise 4
1. an 2. X 3. X 4. X 5. the 6. a 7. an 8. the 9. an 10. A

Exercise 5
1. on the 2. a hurry 3. an MBA course 4. out of town 5. the violin
6. a headache 7. a good view 8. by chance 9. on foot 10. in the beginning
Fill in: The, a, an or -- 1. I have just had a great idea. 2. Columbus was one of the first people
to cross the Atlantic. 3. The British drink too much tea. 4. The Thames flows into the North
Sea. 5. Judith earns € 2000 a month. 6. Dancing is a more interesting activity than reading. 7.
As captain of the ship I have complete authority. 8. The people we met on holiday in the north
of England came from the USA. 9. What’s on TV today? 10. He was doing eighty miles an
hour on the motorway. 11. How many hours do you work on average? 12. You are the first to
reach the top. 13. The people who live in the Netherlands are called the Dutch. 14. The burglar
hit me on the back of my neck. 15. Football is his whole life. 16. I try to go for a run four times
a week. 17. Did you read the book I gave you? 18. Sally went to the prison to visit her
husband. 19. This is the only cinema in the area. 20. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t
throw stones. 21. Do you go to church on Sundays? 22. This is the man I told you about. 23.
This is exactly the job I was looking for. 24. Trafalgar Square is near Charing Cross Station.
25. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. 26. Philosophers seem to think that life is a
mystery. 27. I need time to think about the offer you made. 28. I can’t play the piano but I can
play the guitar. 29. There was a time when I enjoyed skating. 30. The worst part of living in a
tent is the lack of space. 31. Most cars start badly on cold mornings. 32. The Prime Minister
will give a speech this afternoon. 33. The Tower of London is one of the main attractions of
London. 34. I haven’t been to a concert like that before. 35. I was in pain after I twisted my
ankle. 36. Of all these cars I prefer a Japanese one. 37. Neil Armstrong made the first footprint
on the moon. 38. Where are the scissors you borrowed last week? 39. It’s a long way by train to
the south of France. 40. The French drink a lot of wine.