Articles

Articles

A, An, The, are called articles.

Articles are demonstrative adjectives.

Articles are of two type, definite and indefinite articles.

“a” and “an” are indefinite articles.

 “The” is definite article.

Use of “A”

1. Every singular noun which starts with consonants, starts with “a”

E.g. a cat, a dog, a pen, a house, a college etc.

2. Every singular noun which starts with “E” or “U” starts with “a”.

E.g. a university, a European, a uniform, a utensil

3. Every singular noun which starts with “O” but sounds like “v”

E.g. a one rupee note, a one eyed man, a one way ticket.

Use of “An”

1. Every singular noun that starts with a vowel and sounds like (a, e, i, o, u)

E.g. an apple, an egg, an eye, an ear, an inkpot, an orange, an elephant, an army, and idiot, an American.

2. That singular noun that starts with a consonant but sounds like “a”, ”o”, ”e”.

E.g. an MP, an MLA, an S.H.O(s sound like a in starting), an M.A, an hour, an honest man, an heir, an hotel (Because they all sounds like “o” in starting)

 Note: only countable singular noun take “a” or “an” with them.

Uses of “The”

1. With the name of celestial bodies.

E.g. the sun, the moon, the earth, the starts etc.

2. before the name of the directions if it is preceded by a preposition.

E.g. the sun rises in the east and sets in the west

3. Before the name of ships, trains, seas, oceans, canals, lakes, mountains, islands, dams, deserts.

E.g. The frontier mail, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the panama canal, the dal lake, the Himalayas, the Andaman, the bhakra dam, the sahara desert.

4. Before the name of some countries and provinces.

E.g. the USA, the Punjab, the Deccan

5. Before the name of religious books, magazines, newspapers

E.g. the Gita, the Indian express, the Hindustan times, the Mahabharata

6. Before the name of communities.

E.g. the English, the French, the Hindus.

7. Before the proper noun which is used as common nouns.

E.g. Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India;

Kashmir is the Switzerland of Asia.

8. Before the name of political parties,

E.g. the congress, the Janata dal.

9. Before the name of historic and public places.

E.g. the Taj Mahal, the golden temple, the zoo, the library

10. Before the adjectives which have used as noun.

E.g. the rich, the poor, the brave

11. Before (adjective+ proper noun)

E.g. the little bunny is a shy girl

12. Before the adjectives if it is used before noun.

E.g. Ashoka the great, Akbar the great

13. To make plural of proper nouns.

E.g. the Guptas, the mauryas, the browns

14. Before the big ranks

E.g. the prime minister of India, the president of India, the principle of school

15. Before the historical events.

E.g. the battle of Plassey, the battle of Panipat, the mutiny of 1857

16. Before cardinal number

E.g. the second girl in the third row is my friend.

17. Before superlative degrees.

E.g. the wisest boy, the most intelligent person

18. Before comparative degree

E.g. She is the wiser of two

19. After” all “or “both”, but before” whole” or” same”

E.g. All the boys are making noise, both the girls are pretty, the whole class is absent, their ages are the same.

20. Before the common noun which have been described in the paragraph before.

E.g. There was a fox. The fox was hungry

I know the man who came yesterday.