Articles Tips and Tricks for Government Exams

Introduction

Articles are a type of Determiners. Determiners are words that determine or point out or lead to a noun. They are generally used as a prefix to a noun. Articles are also a form of adjectives as they also qualify a noun. Article is a word used in English grammar to specify the definiteness of a noun. Articles noted issues are commonly noted issues that can crop up the language efficiency. An overlooked error can affect the language usage grammatically.

Types

• Definite Articles
  We use the definite article ‘The’ when we want to lead the reader or listener to a specific noun. It says that the noun is definite, certain and exact.
• Indefinite Articles
  Indefinite articles are exact opposites of definite articles. We use the indefinite article ‘A’ or ‘An’ when we refer to a generic noun. It says that the noun is indefinite, uncertain and general. An is used for a noun starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or vowel sound while A is used for consonants (rest of the alphabets)

Rules

• Use ‘the’ before singular and plural nouns, if specifying.
• Use ‘a/an’ for unspecified nouns. It doesn’t matter in this case.
• ‘A’ is used before a consonant sound of the first letter of a word.
• ‘An’ is used before a vowel sound of the first letter of a word. 
• Use ‘A’ as an unspecific article before lot of quantity.
• Unspecific articles are used before measurements.
• A/An used in exclamations before a singular countable noun.
• Definite article ‘the’ is used to represent the same subject introduced before.
• ‘The’ is used when we speak about rivers, seas, oceans, any legendary objects or any universal objects.
• Article before an adjective. In some cases, an article sometimes modifies a noun that is also modified by an adjective.
• Using Articles with Pronouns. Possessive pronouns like his, my, our, its, her, their, etc., can help identify whether you’re talking about specific or nonspecific items. So you don’t need a pronoun.

Solved Examples