ARTICLES& DETERMINERS

 ARTICLES  (A, AN & THE)

 Articles are the words that highlight the status of a noun whether it is common, proper, singular or plural. Generally, we use ‘A’ & ‘AN with indefinite or common Nouns. 'THE’ is used with definite or proper Nouns.

 WE USE ‘A’

 When a singular countable common Noun with the sound of consonant (all alphabets except vowels) is mentioned for the first time. Without any previous reference.

 

He got a pen       He has a big house.     I saw a golden cat.

 

·     Before a singular countable Noun as an example of class/category of things 

A tree needs sunlight=all trees need sunlight

 

·        In certain expressions of quantity

 

A few, a dozen    a pair

 

·        In expressions of price, speed etc. in The sense of per:

 

 Rs .10 a dozen  Two times a day

 

·  With a singular Noun, which begins with a consonant and is Pronounced with a consonantal sound.

 

A yoke        A tree         A guava    A pumpkin

 

·      When a singular Noun starts with E, U or EU but sounds as U (yoo).

 A European continent A unique poem   A university clerk

 

·        When a singular common Noun starts with ‘o’ but is Pronounced with a consonantal sound i.e. ‘wa’

 

A one-diamond pendant  a one-eyed monster

 

WE USE ‘AN’

       i)With a single countable common Noun which begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) and is also  Pronounced with a  vowel sound.

             

                       An apple              An elephant                 An Indian

 

                      An owl                 An English book          An umbrella

 

ii)     With a word which begins with ‘h’ as a silent consonant and followed by       a vowel.

              

An honest girl      An honour           An hour    

 

An heir                  An Homage       An herb( in American English)

 

iii)       When a word begins with a consonant but while Pronouncing its initial letter sounds as a vowel-

                  

An M.B.B.S,                  An M.B.A             An FBI Agent

 

An N.T.T Teacher        An L.L.B               An M.A

 

 

                                        WE USE ‘THE’

 

  Before a common Noun that has been mentioned earlier/we are familiar with:

 

The boy, who met you, was my neighbour (familiar)

 

I saw a child, The child was crying (telling about the same child)

   With the names of directions, when preposition is used with Them:

 

The sun sets in the west (for details see prepositions)

 

·            With the parts of a day but not with night & noon:

         She goes for an outing at 6 in the evening.

With the unique ranks, unique things & unique designations etc.

 

The prime minister            The Sun

The Queen                        The morning star etc.

    With the days associated with important historical events.

 

The battle of Panipat             The Independence Day

The Republic Day                  The Quit India movement of 1942.

          With positive degree of an adjective, when adjective is used after a           Noun:

 

Ashoka the great               Chankya the great

With the superlative degree of an adjective

 

He is the most intelligent boy of the class.

 

January is the coldest month of the year.

 With the names of nations & communities:

 

The British, The Arabian, The Indian

 With the names of religious books

 

The Ramayana  -   The Bible etc.

     With the names of newspapers

 

The times of India        The Hindu

         With the titles of magazines

 

The Women’s Era      The Outlook etc.

 With a singular Noun indicating the whole community

 

The elephant is a wise animal (The elephant community)

 With the names of parties & organizations

 

The Bhartiya Janta Party       The Republican Party

 With a proper Noun (plural)

 

The Benjamin’s     The Mishra’s etc.

   Before the names of historical buildings & public places

 

The Konark Temple               The Mahabalipuram,   

 

The Birmingham Palace        The Bangla Saheb

    

 Before Some Proper Nouns

 

a)       Names of the canals: The Indira Gandhi canal

b)       The name of ships: The Titanic, The INS Vikrant

c)        The names of deserts: The Thar desert

d)       The names of oceans &seas: The Indian Ocean, The Baltic Sea.

e)       The names of rivers: The bias, The Indus, The Thames etc.

f)         The names of stars: The mercury, The Pluto etc.

g)       The names of mountain ranges: The Himalayas, The Andes etc.

h)       The names of islands: The West Indies.

i)          The names of countries starting with united e.g.; The U.A.E. The U.S.S.R The U.S.A etc.

j)          The names of trains: The Fairy Queen Express The Haridwar Express etc.

k)        The names of lakes: The Bhimgauda lake, the Triveni lake

     When We Talk of a Single Unit of Something

 

The earth             The Venus           The sky      The galaxy

 

  When We Are Concerned with One Particular Thing:

 

She sat down on a bed (perhaps one of many beds in the room)

 

She sat down on the bed nearest the switchboard. (A particular bed)

      

             With some historically important dates:

 The 26^th of January          The 15gh of August.

  With names consisting of Noun +of+ Noun

                 The Bay of Bengal  The Sorrow of Assam

  After ‘all’ and ‘both’

     All the boys were shouting        Both the sisters are honest

    Before ‘whole’ and ‘same’:

 The whole country celebrated the victory of Swamiji.  

 Rose will smell the same if called by another name

 

WE DON’T USE ARTICLES

 

i)          With Nouns like bed, chair, kitchen, table, temple, mosque, school, college, university, library, garden, academy, institute etc. if they are used or visited just for their primary purpose, for which They are made.

 

She went to the church to meet Annie

(Visited The church for a particular purpose)

 

She went to church to confess something

(primary purpose to visit church is to confess/pray)

 

ii)        With ‘home’ alone or with a verb of motion/movement

 

She is at home. They left home for their education

 

iii)       Before The relations/games

Father has left this station.    She plays golf everyday.

 

iv)      We don’t use ‘The’ before some proper Nouns such as the names of persons, countries etc.

 

India is a country with a rich and diverse culture.

 

William likes to visit historical places.

 

v)        Before material Nouns

 

Platinum is a precious metal.

 

Gold is an eternal metal.

 

vi)      Before a language

 

Sanskrit and Tamil are the world’s oldest languages.

 

English is an ocean of languages.

 

vii)     We don’t use articles in certain phrases where a preposition is followed by the subject:

 

On foot, in hand, by day and night, to give, to collect, etc.

 

 ARTICLES ARE NOT USED IN NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

 

 Exercise-1 

Insert the suitable articles to complete the sentences: 

Once upon a time, there lived _____mighty king. All ______ people of his state would worship him. ____King had declared himself  ______ almighty. No one could dare to worship ____ God in any other form. Since he had attained ______ benediction from ____ lord Brahma that no weapon, no human, no animal could kill him in ____ morning, or at___ or in _____evening or at_____ night. He was also blessed not to be killed by ___ divine or ___ demon  or __ bird. This blessing made him fearless and he became ______ tyrant. All over ________India, the people know this Demon king by ______ name of _____ Hirnayakashapu. 

Exercise-2

 

Fill in the blanks with a, an or the – 

1.           I bought ____ horse ____ ox and ____ hen. Hen laid____ egg. ____Ox was killed by ____ lion. ____horse jumped over___wall and hit ___ electric pole.

 

2.           We went for ____ picnic last Sunday. All ____ teachers went with us. It was ____ beautiful day. ____ sky was blue and ____ sun was bright. Every child had ____ bag with ____ orange and ___banana in it along with ___ packet of wafers and ___water bottle.

3.           ____Ganges is ____ sacred river. It flows from ____ Himalayas to ____ bay of Bengal. ____ Yamuna meets it at Allahabad. Allahabad is ____ holy place. It is ____ ideal place for studies. There is ____ University at Allahabad. The people of Allahabad elect____M.P.to ____ Lok Sabha.

 4.           We went to ____ Zoo and saw lion, ____ elephant, ____ monkey and ____ Zebra. I gave ____banana and apple to ____ monkey. ____ elephant was giving the children ____ joy ride.

  

DETERMINERS   

Determiner is a word used before a Noun to fix or to define its status or position. These can be divided into the following parts:

 

i)          Articles                                  a, an, the.

ii)        Demonstrative                     this-these; that-those

iii)       Possessive                          my, your, their, his, her, our, its.

iv)      Quantitative                        some, more, any, much, no

v)        Numeral                

a)               Definite               :         one, two, first, second etc.

b)               Indefinite            :         some, many, few, all etc.

c)               Distributive         :         each-every either-neither.

 

(i)      ARTICLES

a)              Definite Articles-The

b)              Indefinite Articles-A & An

(ii)         DEMONSTRATIVE DETERMINERS

        THIS-THESE

         This car is unique (Singular)

These cars are unique (Plural)

         THAT-THOSE

         That boy is a genius. (Singular)

Those boys are genius. (Plural)

 (iii)       POSSESSIVE DETERMINERS:

 

These words proclaim the possession of the related person:

My       :         He is my second cousin

Our     :         We are our own gods

Your    :         He likes your voice

His      :        This is his maiden book.

Her      :         That was her second conference

 (iv)       QUANTITATIVE DETERMINERS:

 

They indicate the quantity of Noun

 

Definite Numerals -They indicate an exact number of related Nouns

 

The tenth student of the first row is my best friend.

This chocolate contains zero percent preservatives.

         

Indefinite Numerals -They indicate an idea of quantity

 

For least quantity of countable Nouns:

 

Few                   : there are few people who do self-analyse.(Equal to none)

A Few               : there are a few people who do self-analyse.(very few)

The Few           : the few people who do self analyse seldom blame others.( all)

 

For least quantity of uncountable Nouns

Little                  : I have little money to spare. . (Equal to none)

A little                : I have a little money to spare. . (Very little)

The little            : I have donated the little money I had to spare. (all)

 

For a large quantity of countable Nouns: 

 

Many  

        The shrine of Vaishno Devi is visited by many people around the world.

 There are many pens in this box.

 

For the large quantity of uncountable Nouns  

Much  

        One who speaks much, does little.

 She does not have much knowledge on this topic. 

Indefinite determiners are used for both uncountable and countable Nouns:

 Some         (a medium quantity): 

I have some good friends who stand by me in thick and thin.

(For countable Noun ‘friend’)

 He can provide us some guidance to solve this riddle.

(For uncountable Noun ‘guidance’)

 More (some extra):

         She wishes to have more awards. (For countable Noun ‘awards’)

        We need more courage to fight this evil.  (For uncountable Noun ‘courage’)

 

Sufficient (appropriate quantity for ones requirement):

     I have sufficient bowls to feed myself and my guests (For countable Noun ‘bowls’)

               We have sufficient information to take action. (For uncountable Noun information)

        Enough (more than required quantity):

            We have enough strength to support this cause. (For uncountable Noun ‘strength’

            She has enough marks to take science stream. (for countable Noun ‘marks’)

 

DISTRIBUTIVE DETERMINERS

Distributive determiners are words used to refer to individual members of a group or set, emphasizing them separately rather than collectively.

 

        Each student is personally attended in Suryaansh.
 
       Every room of this hotel provides a comfortable life. (ALL)
 
      Either option is acceptable. (of the two)
 
    Neither of the answer is correct. (none of the two)

 

EXERCISE

 

A.1  Insert the missing determiners in the following passage:

 When Rosy decided to switch over to another career _________ opposed  her decision but there were _________ who supported her and encouraged her. When she began to face________troubles, ______ commented tauntingly but  there were very________who boosted her. At last she achieved _______success and expecting ________in the coming months. Now she has accumulated_________funds to launch her new project. And this time she is not alone there are___________ people around her to be her project partners.

 A.2  Below are given two passages. In each line of the passages a determiner is missing. Identify and mark ‘/’. You may write the missing determiner in the space provided at the end of each sentence of the passage. First one has been done for you.

 (I)

a)    /Girl was sitting in her car’s driving seat and             ____a__

b)    Was looking here and there for person who could    _______

c)     Help her start car by pushing it from backside.         _______

d)    Man who was running a tea stall was watchin          _______

e)    Her for minutes ,                                                        _______

f)      decided to help her if no comes to help her.              ______

 (II)

a)    There are / people who never dare to think differently         _________

b)    but there are people who think differently but surrender     _________

c)     to the current flow after struggling for time, but there are    _________

d)    those also who fight the current flow and the inner conflict _________

e)    and  never give up. These people eventually emerge as    _________

f)      the Winners and calls them the path breakers or trendsetters._________

A.3  The following passages needs to be edited. There is an error in the use of determiners in each line against which a blank is shown. Underline the error and write the correction in the space provided.

(I)

 

(a)  Once I visited a old palace that was in              __an____

(b)  a jungle of Malwa. There were bushes              ________

(c)  All around and a palace was completely           ________

(d)  Hidden inside the tall bushes, both of its           ________

(e)  Pillar was completely destroyed but the either  ________

(f)    Eleven of them were standing erect in a jungle _______

 

(II)

(a)  It is said that a pyramids are the glory of Egypt                   __the___

(b)  But few latest researches have revealed that                          ________

(c)  The Maya civilization of America had any pyramids            ________

(d)  Any more larger than the largest of the Egyptian pyramids   ________

(e)  This revelation has revealed the relation between either of     _______

(f)    the civilizations, which is already mentioned in a Ramayana. ________