English Language & Comprehension Skills
Common Error
1. Articles
1. Articles: There are three articles in English—a, an and the. A and
an are called indefinite article.The is the definite article. An article is
placed before a noun. If there is an adjective before a noun, the article is
placed before the adjective:
a train, a fast train,
an incident, an unusual incident
Note: We can never use a singular count noun alone, that is, without
a/an/the/my/some/any etc.
2. A/an: Singular count nouns take the indefinite article a/an
with them:
a ball an egg
a dog an elephant
Uncount nouns do not generally take an article with them. we do not generally
say
a milk a beauty a
wisdom
for milk, beauty, wisdom cannot be counted.
3. We use a with singular count nouns beginning with a consonant
sound:
a girl a map a
university a union a
one-sided affair a one-rupee note
Note: That the words university, union, and one begin with a vowel
but no a vowel sound. University and union begin with the yoo sound
while one begins with the w sound.
Well-known words which begin with a vowel but take a with them are:
European uniform
union unit
universal usual
useful eau-de-cologne
4. An: An is used before words beginning with a vowel sound:
an umbrella an opportunity
an honest boy an honorable person
The letter h in honest and honourable is not sounded. Common words in English
which begin with an unsounded h are:
heir
heiress honest honorary
honourable hour hourly
5. In abbreviations, if consonants begin with a vowel sound, they take
an before them:
an M.P. an S.P.
But if consonants begin with a consonant sound, they take a before them:
a Ph.D. a B.Ed.
6. Note the use of a in the following phrases:
a pity
a shame
a pleasure a noise
a rage
a nuisance
a headache a toothache
a bad cold in a whisper
in a low voice in a loud voice
to be at a loss
7. The definite Article the: The, the definite article, is a weakended
form of that. It is pronounced as (di:) when it preceded a vowel sound and as do
before a consonant sound. In meaning also, it is weaker than that. Instead of
pointing out, it defines, particularises or singles out:
I have read the book you are talking of. (not any book but a particular book
that is being referred to) The artists who came to seem me today are quite
accomplished. (not any artists but the ones who came to see me today)
8. In the examples given in § 7, the book and the artists are
particularised by two adjective clauses. In certain cases, a noun's being
particular may be clear from the context and it may not have any defining
expression with it. The is also prefixed to such a noun:
Shut the door. (the door of the room in which we are sitting) He was brought
before the Principal. (The Principal of the institution in which he was
studying) The king pardoned him. (the king we are talking about at the moment)
9. If I am looking at the picture of a room, I can talk about the
ceiling, the floor, because there is only one ceiling and one floor, but I
cannot talk about the wall if there are more than one walls in the picture
because I would not be talking about the only one. I can, however, talk about
the left wall and the right wall because there is only one left wall and one
right wall in the picture.
10. More about the: We use the definite article the
- with superlatives and the words used in the superlative sense:
the best student in the class
the Chief Justice
the PrimeMinister
- when special emphasis almost equivalent to the use of the superlative is
intended:
He is the leader today. (the greatest leader)
This is just the thing. (the right thing)
This is the way to solve this problem. (the proper way).
- even in comparative degrees when one of the two items is singled out in
preference to the other:
He is the moon, the world, (But not: He is the finer batsman than others.
The correct form would
be : He is a finer bats man than others.)
- with things of which there is only one in our world, or things which are
otherwise well known but do
not begin with a capital letter:
the sun, the moon, the world, the equator, the north, the east.
- in place of possessive adjectives:
I hit him on the head. (= his head) Disappointment stared him in the face.(
= his face)
- with common nouns when one noun is used to represent the whole class or
species:
The horse is a faithful animal.
The lion is the king of animals.
- with an adjective with a plural notion to indicate a class of persons:
The rich should help the poor. (We can say: Rich men should help poor men
But not: The rich men should help the poor men.×)
- as an adverb in case of certain comparatives: The more we get, the more
we want.
The harder you work, the better it will be.
- to suggest distribution: (= each)
We can buy oranges by the dozen.
Cloth is sold by the metre.
Exercise
Fill in the blanks with a, an or the where necessary:
- —— more you read, —— more you know.
- —— stone hit him on —— head.
- —— fox is —— very clever animal.
- Only —— rich can afford ——comforts of ——modern times.
- I have —— elder brother and —— younger sister. —— sister is —— wiser of
the two.
- If you are looking for —— entertaining as well as educative magazine,
this is —— magazine for you.
- —— sun rises in — east and sets in —west.
- India is a little to —— north of —— equator.
- —— oranges are sold by —— dozen.
11. Articles with Proper Nouns
1. Proper nouns, as a rule, do not take articles with them:
Shakespeare was a great playwright. (Shakespeare)
Samudragupta was a great warrior. (Samudragupta)
2. But if a proper noun is used as a common noun, it may take with it
some article:
He is a good playwright but not a Shakespeare. (not as great a playwright as
Shakespeare)
Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India. (as great a playwright for India as
Shakespeare is for England)
3. We need the definite article the with the names of:
Rivers the Ganga, the Yamuna
- Seas and oceans the Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean
- Mountain ranges the Alps, the Himalayas
- Holy books the Bible, the Ramcharit Manas
- Trains, ships the Himgiri Express, the Ashoka (the name of a ship).
- Newspapers and the Pioneer, magazines the Hindustan Times, the Filmfare,
the portstar
