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ARTICLE

An article is a word used to modify noun, which is an object, a person, a place or an

idea. ‘A’, ‘An’, ‘The’ are called articles out of which, ‘A’ and ‘An’ are known as Indefinite
articles while ‘The’ is known as Definite article.
A/An:
A/An is used for singular countable nouns which are introduced for the first time, .i.e.,
they are indefinite.
E.g. (I) She is girl. (N)
She is a girl. (Y)
(II) They purchased car. (N)
They purchased a car. (Y)
(A) An is used only before the letters producing vowel sounds, i.e., the sounds
produced while speaking the vowels ‘a, e, i, o, u’. e.g. An honest woman.
(B) If the word starts with a consonant sound, article ‘A’ is used. e.g. A one rupee note.
Note: You need to take care the pronunciation in case of an abbreviation as well.
Where are these articles used?
1. An article comes before a noun. E.g. Mr. Sharma is a cook. (Here, “cook” is a noun,
and the presence of which allows an article to come before it)
2. An article comes before an adjective, if an adjective modifies the noun. E.g. Mr.
Sharma is an excellent cook. (Here, “excellent” is an adjective and “cook” is a noun)
3. An article comes before an adverb, if an adverb qualifies an adjective qualifying a
noun. E.g. Mr. Sharma is a very good cook. (Here, “very” is an adverb, “good” is an
adjective and “cook” is a noun)

Uses of Indefinite articles:

1. A/An is used before singular countable nouns. e.g. She has a pair of red shoes.
Note: Though ‘Noise’ is an uncountable noun, it takes article ‘a’ before it.
2. In case of exclamatory sentences, A/An is used after ‘what’ and ‘how’, and before the
singular countable noun that are used in the sentence.
e.g., What a grand building!

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How beautiful a girl she is!

3. A/An will come before a verb which is used as a noun in a sentence.
e.g. Shalini goes for a walk daily.
Shyam has gone for a ride.
4. A/An can be used in place of ‘per’ in a sentence.
e.g. She completes 20 pages a week.
He runs twenty meters an hour.
5. A/An will be used before a noun when many/rather/such/quite takes a singular
noun after them. e.g.:
He was such a foolish guy.
It was quite an honorable moment.
Many a man would play the game that night.
She was rather a polite girl.
6. A is used before half/fractions.
e.g. Three and a half men
Mr. Sharma had to run half a km daily.
7. A is used with the words that indicate the number of countable nouns such as
‘hundred’, ‘dozen’, ‘couple’, ‘million’, thousand’ etc.
8. There are a few phrases in which A/An is used. Some of these are:
In a fix, tell a lie, in a hurry, a pity, in a nutshell, take a liking, make a noise, take an
interest in, make a foot, take a fancy to, keep a secret, at a loss, as a rule, a short while
ago, at a stone’s throw, etc.
E.g. The teacher shouted not to make a noise.
She sat at a stone’s throw from me.
Ram was in a hurry when he met his sister.
There are a few phrases in which A/An is not used. Some of these are:
By mistake, to set foot, to give ear, in danger, to take heart, last but not least, to catch
fire, at home, set on fire, by bus/car, in hand, etc.
E.g. My mother was not at home.
I go to school by bus.
She was last but not least in the race.

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➢ Where do we omit A/An?

It should not be used with a plural noun.
E.g. A girls have gone (N)
Girls have gone (Y)
The girls have gone (Y)

➢ A/An is not with the uncountable nouns.

Such as: Mischief, accommodation, baggage, luggage, advice, permission, news,
progress, scenery, weather, knowledge, traffic, music, wine, equipment, information,
poetry, furniture, hair, business, bread, stationery, crockery, postage, wastage,
money, jewellery, breakage, work, evidence.
E.g. He did a mischief today (remove ’a’)
He spreads an information (remove ‘an’)
Exception: To make uncountable nouns countable, a few words are used before them.
Such as:
E.g. I have a piece of information for the department.
She gave me a piece of work to do.
➢ In sentences starting with ‘what kind of’, ‘what sort of’, ‘what type of’ and ‘what
variety of’, articles are not used before the nouns.
E.g. What sort of an act it was! (N)
What sort of act it was! (Y)

The:
The is known as definite article because it is used before definite nouns towards which
someone can ‘point out’. Thus, definite nouns are the nouns that we can ‘visualize’ or
that has ‘already been introduced’. Hence, “The” is called as definite article.
E.g. Once upon a time, there lived an old woman. The old woman was very generous. One
day, she decided to meet a hermit. The hermit was very poor.
In the first sentence given above, ‘an old woman’ is introduced. Thus, article ‘a’
preceded ‘old woman’. In the very next sentence, ‘old woman’ has become familiar to
us, thus, article ‘The’ came before it. In the third sentence, the next person, .i.e., ‘a
hermit’ has been introduced. In the last sentence, again, the person became familiar
to us, thus, ‘The hermit’ has been used in the sentence.

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Other examples:
The boy, who used to sit here daily, is absent today.
The shirt which I bought yesterday has been stolen.

USE OF ARTICLE WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OF NOUN

▪ Proper Noun
1. With the names of any person or place, article never comes.
E.g. Ram was an honest man.
Exceptions:-
A/An is used before proper nouns in the following cases:
A Mr. Taneja has come to see you.
This novel has been published by a Rishi Anand.
In the above sentences, the nouns ‘Mr. Taneja’ and ‘Rishi Anand’ are not known to the
speaker. Only the names of the persons are conveyed to him. Thus, article ‘A’ is used
before ‘Mr. Taneja’ and ‘Rishi Anand’.

➢ For a comparative purpose, when a person or place is mentioned in a sentence,

article ‘the’ comes before the proper noun.
E.g. She is the Sita of modern India
Coorg is the Scotland of India
➢ ‘The’ comes before the names of a few places.
E.g.
The Great Britain
The Netherlands
The Hague

2. With the name of states, ‘The’ doesn’t come, except with Punjab, .i.e., ‘The Punjab’.
3. ‘The’ is not used with the name of any country.
E.g. Australia, Romania, China etc.

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However, if ‘Union’, ‘United’, ‘Republic’ or ‘Kingdom’ comes with the names of the
country, ‘the’ is used. E.g. The Soviet Union, The USA, The Irish Republic, etc.
4. Before the names of the mountain ranges, ‘the’ comes
E.g. The Alps, The Shivaliks, etc.
5. Article doesn’t come before the name of any disease, except The Measles, The
Rickets, The Mumps, The Plague and The Flu.
6. ‘The’ doesn’t come before the name of any language but it comes before ‘nationality’.
E.g. The French speak French.
The British defeated the French.
7. ‘The’ is used with the following proper nouns:
Names of Rivers (The Yamuna, The Ganga), Names of Seas (The Arabian Sea, The
Caribbean Sea), Names of Oceans (The Atlantic Ocean, The Indian Ocean), Names of
groups of Islands (The Andaman & Nicobar Islands, The Lakshdweep), Names of
Deserts (The Thar Desert), Names of Canals (The Suez Canal), Names of Newspapers
(The Times of India, The Hindu), Names of Movements (The Non- Cooperation
Movement), Names of Trains/ (The Shatabdi Express), Names of Political Parties (The
Congress, The BJP), Names of Statues/Acts (The Legislature, The Indian Penal Code),
Names of Musical Instruments (The Guitar, The Violin), Names of Inventions (The
Telephone, The Telescope), Names of Clubs (The Lions Club, The Rotary Club), Names
of Dynasty (The Marathas, The Peshwas), Names of body parts (Only when a
possessive object is replaced by any article, otherwise articles don’t come before boy
parts, e.g., He was wounded in his/the eye), Names of Hotels (The Taj, The Oberoi),
Names of Trophies/Cups (The World Cup), Names of Era, Revolutions & Wars (The
Middle Ages, The Green Revolution), Names of things that are unique (The World, The
Universe, The Environment, The Atmosphere), Names of Posts (The Chairman, The
Managing Director: Here A/An can be used before the names of the posts if we are
talking about one out of many similar posts, e.g., She is a chairman of ICICI bank)
8. When it means ‘Room’, ‘The’ comes before the ‘Space’.
E.g. He tried to park the vehicle, but the space was not enough.
Many astronauts dream of going to space.
9. ‘The’ is used before the names of Holy Books: The Quran, The Bible
10. ‘The’ is used before the names of the Monuments: The Taj Mahal, The Red Fort.

ARTICLES DON’T COME WITH:

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Names of months: July, August etc., Names of days: Sunday, Monday etc., Names of
subjects: Physics, Maths etc., Names of roads: Mall Road, G.T Road etc., Names of meals:
Breakfast, Lunch etc., Names of languages: Marathi, Assamese etc., Names of hobbies:
Dancing, Painting etc., Names of games: Hockey, Cricket etc., Before noun complement:
Appoint, Make, Elect, Select.(E.g. They elected him chairman), ‘The’ is not used before
‘Heaven’, ‘Hell’, ‘God’ and ‘Parliament’. (E.g. Go to hell, God resides in heaven, etc.)

▪ Common Noun
1. Article ‘The’ is used before an object which is already known to both the speaker
and the listener.
E.g. Can you please go and catch the bus?
Will you pass the cup I gave you yesterday?
2. An article can represent the entire species, if it comes before a singular common
noun.
E.g. A dog is a faithful animal.
Exception: Man doesn’t come under this rule because the word ‘man’ means a human
being, not the entire species, e.g., Man is mortal.
3. Article will not be used if schools, colleges, temples are denoted in reference to their
primary purpose.
E.g. Children should go to school
My grandmother goes to temple every morning.
Article will be used if schools, colleges, temples etc. denote a place or a building, not
its primary purpose.
E.g. My house is behind a school.
The college is next to the temple.

▪ Abstract Noun/ Material Noun: No Article is used with abstract nouns. They are
uncountable nouns, hence, A/An cannot be used with them, e.g., Honesty is the best
policy.
Exception: An article precedes the noun if nouns are followed by preposition ‘of’.
E.g. The bravery of that man is famous in the town.
The wooden ornaments of this locality are known for their designs.

USE OF ARTICLE WITH ADJECTIVES

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1. Before superlative degree, ‘The’ is often used.

E.g. He is the worst player in the team.
She is the most irritating girl of the town.
Exception: Article A/An can also be used if we talk about one out of many nouns
qualified by superlative degree.
E.g. This is a most useful book needed for bank exams.
2. When two comparative degrees are shown inversely or directly proportional to
each other, ‘The’ is used before the comparative degree.
E.g. The higher you go, the harder will be for you to breathe.
The more you call, the lesser I listen.
3. A comparative degree is used, preceded by ‘the’ and followed by ‘of’ if one out of two
are chosen.
E.g. He is the better of the two cooks.
She is the stronger of the two women.
But a superlative degree is used, preceded by ‘the’ and followed by ‘of’ if one out of
many are chosen.
E.g. He is the best of all the students.
4. Article ‘The’ denotes the entire class and become plural common noun when it is
used before adjectives like honest, poor, rich, meek etc.
E.g. The poor are always exploited by the rich.
The poor and the rich, the young and the old, all demand the corruption free India.
5. Article ‘The’ is used with the proper noun when any adjective or a noun qualifies a
proper noun.
E.g. Ashoka the great.
The great Akbar.
Napolean, the warrior.
6. Article ‘The’ is used before Ordinal numbers (first, second, third etc.). Cardinal
numbers (one, two, three etc.) do not take any article before them.
E.g. Chapter two of this book is very easy.
The second half of this movie is very interesting.
Volume one of this book is on loyalty.
The second volume of this book is on betrayal.
7. Before adjectives ‘same’, ‘both’, ‘after all’ and ‘whole’, article ‘The’ is used.
E.g. She is the same lady who met me in the market.
The whole book was based on the fiction.

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8. The sentence takes a different meaning when article ‘A’ or ‘The’ is used with ‘few’
and ‘little’.
Few (a) A few - Not equivalent to zero
(b) Few – Equivalent to zero but not zero
(c) The few – All that is available
Little (a) A little – Not equivalent to nothing
(b) Little – Equivalent to nothing but not nothing
(c) The little – All that is available
9. A/An is used if so, as, too, how and quite are used before adjectives and the noun
that follows adjective is singular.
E.g. Mohan is not so big a foolish you think.
It is too tough a question for me to solve.

USE OF ARTICLE ACCORDING TO SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT

▪ If an article is placed before the first subject only, it means the person/ thing is the
same for which two nouns are used. Hence, singular verb will be used.
E.g. A red and white shirt was bought by him. (Here, red and white shirt means a single
shirt)
But if an article is used before every subject, it means there are more than one people/
thing talked about or mentioned.
E.g. The coach and the businessman have come. (Here, ‘coach’ and ‘businessman’ are
two different persons)

Difference between A/An & One

Basis of Difference A/An One
Definition These This is an adjective.
are
articles.
In the sense of ‘per’ ‘A’ is We can’t use ‘one’ in the sense of
used in ‘per’.
the
sense of
‘per’ as
in ‘per
day’,
‘per
week’,

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When used with a noun
With another/ other
With
day/week/month/year/summe
r/winter etc.
In case of a particular day
As a pronoun
To avoid repetition
‘per kg’
etc. E.g.
Ten
rupees a
kilo,
sixty
kilomet
ers an
hour.
A cow is One apple is not enough for our
a useful family to eat. We need two or
animal. more as the consumption is
huge.
Article One student wants to go out,
‘A’ can’t another wants to stay in the
be used class.
with
another
/ other.
- One comes before
day/week/month/year/summe
r/winter etc., when we are
referring to an incident on that
particular day/week etc. E.g.
One night, there was a terrible
storm.
- Use of ‘one’ does not point to any
particular day. E.g. One day you
will come back to me.
- ‘One’ can be used as A/An
pronoun too. E.g. Did you get any
basket? Yes, I have got one.
Note: Plural of ‘one’ is ‘some’.
- To avoid repetition of a noun,
we use ‘one’ as a pronoun. E.g.
This book is better than that one.
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