Articles Part - II

 

Articles Part - II

Indefinite Article “a & an”

v Does not refer Particular noun

v Used with several countable nouns in different conditions

Indefinite Article “a & an” – Rules

Rule 1 – ‘A’ is used before a word (countable noun) beginning with a consonant sound

Eg: A boy, A Table, A University, A European

Rule 2 – ‘An’ is used with a word beginning with a Vowel Sound

Eg: An Apple, An Elephant, An Umbrella, An Honest, An Heir

Rule 3 – Abbreviations – ‘An’ (Letter – Consonant, Pronunciation – Vowel)

Eg: An HOD, An MLA, An M.A., An MBBS

Rule 4 – Indefinite Articles – One of Many

Eg: I met a Friend (One of Certain friends)

I read a novel (One of Certain novels)

Rule 5 – Indefinite Articles – Whole Class in the sense of ‘all’ or ‘any’

Eg: A Student should be Obedient (any student / all students)

A doctor must love his patients (any doctor / all doctors)

Rule 6 – ‘a’- Used with ‘little’ and ‘few’

Eg: A little milk, A few students

Rule 7 - Used in the sense of ‘every’

Eg: 2,000 a month (means 2,000 every month)

80 km an hour

Rule 8 – Used in an exclamatory sentence before an adjective

Eg: What a beautiful flower!

Rule 9 – Commonly used with certain words.

Eg: a couple, a dozen, half a dozen, a thousand, a million, a lot of, a great deal of, a great number of

Rule 10 – Used to convert proper noun into a common noun

Eg: He is a Gandhi (a great political leader)

She is a Mother Teresa (a great social worker)

Zero Article

v Sometimes Nouns requires no article at all. This is called Zero Article

Zero Article – Rules

Rule 1 – Uncountable Nouns

Eg: Water, Weather, Thunder, Lightening, Heat, Cold, Sunshine

Rule 2 – No articles before Pronouns

Eg: Where is my bag?

Rule 3 – With meals

Eg: Breakfast, Lunch, dinner

Rule 4 – Before nouns that refer to abstract ideas

Eg: education, experience, knowledge, life, love, hatred, time, help, understanding, sleep

Rule 5 – Sports and Academic Subjects

Eg: English, Economics, Maths, Science, Basketball, Football, Tennis

Ideas and Experience – advice, information, progress, luck, fun, work, etc.

Solid and Granular Substances – skin, wood, metal, sand, rice, cheese, etc.

Weather words – weather, thunder, lightening, snow, rain, etc.

Grouped ideas or Collection of things – furniture, luggage, food, money, news, equipment, vocabulary, food, etc.

Liquid and Gases – water, milk, air, coffee, smoke, mist, etc.

Energy – heat, cold, light, sunshine, radiation, etc.

Name of a diseases – cancer, flu, malaria, etc. (Exception- heart attack, ache and tumor)

Author:

Dr. L. Suresh

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)

Coimbatore – 641 020