USE OF ARTICLES

❖ Indefinite Articles- [“a” & “an”] are used to refer to a

particular person or thing, whereas the definite article
(‘the’) is used when the person or thing to whom we are
referring is not specified.
❖As a rule of thumb, the article may be omitted before

proper nouns and abstract nouns.

“A” is used:
◻ Before words beginning with a consonant sound: a
history, a boy.
◻ Before words which begin with a ‘y’ sound (‘u’ is
pronounced as ‘yoo’): a university, a European.
◻ Before words which begin with a ‘w’ sound (‘o’ is
pronounced as ‘wa’): a one-eyed man, a one-rupee
note.
“An” is used:
◻ Before words beginning with a vowel sound: an
umbrella, an American.
◻ Before words beginning with a silent ‘h’: an hour,
an honest man.
“The” is used:
◻ Before a particular person or thing: The boy who
raked first in the class was given a prize.
◻ Before the names of rivers, seas, mountain, ranges,
groups of islands: the Ganga, the Bay of Bengal,
the Himalayas.
◻ Before the superlative degree:
Delhi is the largest city in India.
“The” is used:
◻ Before the names of holy books: The Bible, The
Ramayana
◻ Before ordinal numbers: Ravi is the second fastest
runner in the class.
◻ Before parts of the body: Raghu hit Raju on the
head.
◻ In adverbial expressions: The tougher the climb,
the tastier the success.
Articles:

◻ Articles are also omitted before the

names of days and months, colours,
disease, games and languages.
Articles:

◻ The articles a, an and the are determiners

used before nouns and sometimes
adjectives.
◻ “A” comes before singular nouns that
begin with a consonant sound. For
example: a rat, a unit, a xylophone.
Articles

◻“An” comes before singular nouns

that begin with a vowel sound or a
mute h.
For example: an adult, an X-ray, an
heiress.
“A” / “An”
◻ are indefinite articles.
◻ are used to speak of someone or something for the
first time.
◻ are used with a noun in general.
◻ For example:
We have a test tomorrow.
Ram wants to be an umpire.
“The”
◻ “The” is a definite article used to point out a noun.
◻ The articles “a”, “an” and “the” can be used before
an adjective that comes before a noun.
◻ For example:
Our school has got a new (adj.) captain (noun).
The new captain was elected last week.
He is an intelligent boy.