Grammar Chapter-1 Articles
Grammar Chapter-1 Articles
Grammar Chapter-1 Articles
Articles
T
he words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ are called articles and help to identify
whether you are talking about a particular person, place, animal or
thing for only referring to them in a general way.
Before a noun that is introduced for the first time in speech or writing.
The box of nuts and bolts weighs a kilo. (Or one kilo)
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T
he definite article ‘the’ is used in front of all kinds of common nouns,
singular and plural as well as countable and uncountable, to refer to
a particular person, animal, place or thing mentioned earlier by the
speaker/writer or whose identity is already known to the listener/reader.
The use of ‘the’ in the following sentences will make this clear.
We found a pup on the road and took it home. The pup soon
became part of our family.
('the pup' in the second sentence is referring to 'a pup' in the
previous sentence.)
The new iron/the iron in the box/the iron that we bought is not
very expensive.
Both the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sri Lanka are close
to India.
In front of the names of holy books, for example: the Gita, the Quran,
the Granth Sahib.
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Before uncountable nouns like air and milk (the is used before nouns
made specific by some following words)
Before the names of illness (but there are exceptions e.g. a headache,
a sore throat, and a cold and flu/the flu, measles/the measles,
mumps/the mumps)
Before the names of meals had at different times of the day, except
when they are specified by following words.
We go on foot to school.
Exercise:
1. Fill in the blanks in the sentences with ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’. Where
more than one word is suitable, use the most appropriate one to
complete the sentence. If a blank space does not need any of the
three words, indicate this with an X.
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e) Sajita found ............... wallet on her way home. She took ...............
wallet to the police station.
e) History is not really Lisa's favourite subject, but she finds the history
of the Greeks fascinating.