An Article on Articles!

Let’s take a look at articles used in the English language! We use articles in our day to day life. Articles are present in every sentence we speak. But does everyone know what articles are and when we use them while 

speaking?

The articles in English language are “a, an, the”. They are used before nouns and occasionally adjectives. Articles can be categorized as ‘definite’ and ‘indefinite’ articles. Definite being ‘the’ and indefinite being ‘a, an’.

Let’s take a closer look at indefinite and definite articles.

A definite article identifies a particular noun. For example: “The tree outside my window.” Here, we are talking about a particular tree and giving its location. Hence, we can say that the article “the” can be used 

when we talk about a specific object, person or place.

An indefinite article is used in more general terms. Let’s take a look at two examples of indefinite articles: “I have an apple tree in my backyard.” Here, we are talking about one of the many kinds of trees in the backyard. We use ‘an’ before words that begin with vowels- ‘a, e, i, o, u’. (Note: Sometimes the alphabets ‘h’ and ‘y’ are also considered vowels in their silent form. Examples: An hour.)

Now take a look at this sentence: “We have a swimming pool in my school.” In this sentence, we use the word ‘a’ to indicate a swimming pool in the school. We use ‘a’ before consonants. Consonants are letters excluding a, e, i, o, u.

Here is a fun exercise for practice!

• ·         There is ____ gym on the way back from work. (a, an, the)
• ·          ____ boy on the street was looking for his mother. (a, an, the)
• ·         ____ apple a day, keeps ____doctor away. (a, an, the)
• ·         Can I have ____ slice of pie? (a, an, the)
• ·         It takes me ____ hour to get to work. (a, an, the)

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