Articles in English

Articles

How do you know when to use the indefinite articles?

The choice of article is actually based upon the phonetic (sound) quality of the first letter in a word, not on the orthographic (written) representation of the letter. If the first letter makes a vowel-type sound, you use "an"; if the first letter would make a consonant-type sound, you use "a." However, you may follow these basic rules when deciding to use "a" or "an," remembering that there are some exceptions to the rules.

"A" goes before words that begin with consonants.

A.      a cat

B.      a dog

C.     a purple onion

D.     a buffalo

E.      a big apple

"An" goes before words that begin with vowels:

A)      an apricot

B)      an egg

C)     an Indian

D)     an orbit

E)      an uprising

Exceptions

Use "an" before unsounded "h." Because the "h" hasn't any phonetic representation and has no audible sound, the sound that follows the article is a vowel; consequently, "an" is used.

·         an honorable peace

·         an honest error

When "u" makes the same sound as the "y" in "you," or "o" makes the same sound as "w" in "won," then a is used. The word-initial "y" sound ("unicorn") is actually a glide [j] phonetically, which has consonantal properties; consequently, it is treated as a consonant, requiring "a."

                     i.            a union

                   ii.            a united front

                  iii.            a unicorn

                 iv.            a used napkin

                   v.            a U.S. ship

                 vi.            a one-legged man

We have listed some examples in the following table. There you can see when we use the indefinite article and when we don't.

“A” is used before a word beginning with a consonants sound		‘AN’ is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound
Boy/ B.A/ C.A / choice   course /  CD player doctor / bad day /ewe European/girl/eulogy heir/historian /home historical event  /habitual horse/human being  unicorn/hypothesis humorous event/knife natural motivator/hint man/minister/hill/hotel one eyed beggar eucalyptus tree	Scooter US got .plan SAARC country NATO member? Union member Unique manager Unit /uniform Universal rule University/hero Useful thing Women/triangle Yard/year/young man Happy life/harvest UNESCO Meeting	Accident / accountant American /army /epic ASEAN member Ass/auto-driver Axe /egg/electric pole Event /HCL product Honest man/ employee Hounourable man Hour/yield Idea/idiot/ Indian Interesting story Ocean /excellent painter FA cup / IOU	Impolite answer M.P / M.L.A / M.A ISI product NCC officer Oak tree /onion Ordinary man /owl Orphan /RMP doctor R.T.C bus /S.B.I card Extraordinary man Umbrella/SSC student Unkind remark /ulcer Explosive factory X-ray /LLB student

 

DEFINITE ARTICLE “THE”

 

“The“ is the defineat articles because it is used when we speak of a definite  person or thing

                             The is used in the following contentext :[ before name of ]

SNO	CONTEXT	USAGE
1	Unique things	The sun ,      the moon,   the sky,   the earth,
2	Rivers /seas	The gangas,   the godaari ,  the nile,   the thames,
3	Oceans/canals	The pacific,  the atlantic,   the suez,   the panama canal,
4	Well-known books	The gita,   the bible,  the vadas,  the mahabaratham
5	Directions	The east ,  the west,  the north ,  the south ,
6	News papers	The hindu, the  eenadu, the India today, the times of India,
7	Years/festivals/events	The leap year ,  the pongal ,  the ramzan,  the Christmas ,
8	Musical instruments	The piono,  the violin,  the sitar,  the flute,
9	Historical buildings	The tajmahal ,  the charminar,  the redfort,  the qutab minar,
10	Famous historical Events	The republic day ,  the industrial revolution the independence day
11	Plural names of the countries or places	The UK/ UNO the Netherlands ,the republic germany  ,
12	Ranges of mountains	The alps ,  the Himalayas , the vindhyas ,
13	Group of islands	The Maldives , the west indies ,  the laksha dweep , the andamans,
14	Inventions	The microscope, the telescope ,  the cinema ,  the museum,
15	Ordinals	The first  ,the second  ,  the third , the last,
16	Ships/aero planes /trains	The titanic  ,the rajadhani express , the boeing 732
17	Superlative adjectives	The best , the biggest , the most.,  the wisest

Some more Usages:

Double comparatives: - the more you speak ,the less you understand

The higher you climb ,the colder you get

Adjectives used as noun :-{ the +adjectives. is equal to a plural noun }

the +rich =the rich people

the +poor=the poor people         eg:-the rich should help the poor

Persons or things mentioned for the second time:

e.g.  I met a boy,  the boy is very handsome

With the nouns that are made definite by a relative clause:

Eg;   this is the girl who danced in our auditorium

Singular nouns representing the whole class:

Eg:  the teacher should love man kind[all teachers]

The dog is a faithful animal [all dogs ]

 Proper noun used as common noun:

Eg ; kalidas is the Shakespeare of India                                      

Delhi is the London of India.

EXCEPTIONS TO USING THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

with names of countries (if singular)
Germany is an important economic power.
He's just returned from Zimbabwe.
(But: I'm visiting the United States next week.)

with the names of languages
French is spoken in Tahiti.
English uses many words of Latin origin.
Indonesian is a relatively new language.

with the names of meals.

 
Lunch is at midday.
Dinner is in the evening.
Breakfast is the first meal of the day.

with people's names (if singular):

 
John's coming to the party.
George King is my uncle.
(But: we're having lunch with the Morgans tomorrow.)

with titles and names:

 
Prince Charles is Queen Elizabeth's son.
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Dr. Watson was Sherlock Holmes' friend.
(But: the Queen of England, the Pope.)

• After the 's possessive case:
  His brother's car.
  Peter's house.
• with professions:
  Engineering is a useful career.
  He'll probably go into medicine.
• with names of shops:
  I'll get the card at Smith's.
  Can you go to Boots for me?
• with years:
  1948 was a wonderful year.
  Do you remember 1995?
• With uncountable nouns:
  Rice is the main food in Asia.
  Milk is often added to tea in England.
  War is destructive.
• with the names of individual mountains, lakes and islands:
  Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in Alaska.
  She lives near Lake Windermere.
  Have you visited Long Island?
• with most names of towns, streets, stations and airports:
  Victoria Station is in the centre of London.
  Can you direct me to Bond Street?
  She lives in Florence.
  They're flying from Heathrow.

In some fixed expressions, for example:

·         by car

·         by train

·         by air

·         on foot

·         on holiday

·         on air (in broadcasting)

·         at school

·         at work

·         at University

·         in churh

prepared by: B. Balaji Reddy, Asso. Professor, SVPCET, PUTTUR.