Articles are the most basic words in English and are highly important in English usage. They are used before Nouns and bring accuracy to the sentence. In this article lets learn about Articles in English Language in detail.

What are Articles?

The three words “A”,” An”, and “The” are called articles in English language. “A” and “An” are called Indefinite articles as they not particular in nature, and “The” is called definitive article as it always shows a particular person or a thing. (Hence sometimes ‘the’ also acts as an adjective in the sentence).

The articles ‘A’ and ‘An’ are generally used before singular countable common nouns. ‘The’ is used before singular/ plural countable/ uncountable/ uncountable nouns according to the context.

Rules for the Use of Articles ‘A’ and ‘An’

The usage of ‘A’ or ‘An’ is primarily decided on the basis of sound. ‘A’ is used before the words that begin with the sound of a consonant.

Eg: A boy, A student, A Pen, A Rocket (Words beginning with and having the sound of Consonants).
A European, A University, A Union, A Useful idea (Words beginning with vowel but have consonant sound).

‘An’ is used before the words beginning with a vowel, or with the sound of a vowel or with a mute ‘h’.

Eg: An Elephant, An Umbrella, An American, An hour, An honest person, An MLA, An X-ray.

A/ An is used be used before a common noun when that noun is used for the first time in the sentence.

Eg: A beggar came to my door.

Rules for the Use of the Article ‘The’

Whenever we talk about a particular thing or a person, or any noun that has already been mentioned before, ‘the’ is used before the word. For example,

The cassette is available in that store.
This is the book I want.
The person standing next to him is my brother.

Before proper nouns and any unique objects referring to the names of the following, “The” should be used.

Before the names of Mountain ranges	The Himalayas, The Rocky mountains, The Andes mountains
Before the names of Planets and Stars	The Earth, The Sun
Before the names of Descriptive names of countries	The USA, The UAE, The USSR
Before the names of Holy books	The Bible, The Gita, The Quran
Before the names of Newspapers	The Hindu, The New York Times
Before the names of Historical buildings	The Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, The Statue of Liberty
Before the names of Deserts	The Sahara, The Thar desert
Before the names of Musical instruments	The Guitar, The flute, The Harmonium
Before the names of Hotels	The Sheraton, The Grand Central Hotel etc…
Before the names of Castes and Religions	The Hindus, The Rajputs, The Muslims etc…
Before important events in History	The Boston Tea Party, The Cold War, The Quit India Movement, The Non- Cooperation movement, The First World War etc…
Before the names of political parties and Organizations	The Republican Party, The Congress Party, The Communist party, The United nations Organization, The UNESCO etc..

‘The’ is used before an adjective when that adjective is representing a class or a section. For example,

The poor should be uplifted.
The young should take care of the old.

Note: When ‘the’ is used before these classes of adjectives, they will become plural nouns. Eg: The rich, the poor, the deaf, the dead, the dumb, the sick, the poor etc…

“The” must be used before any adjective spoken in the superlative degree.

Eg: Russia is the largest country in the world.
Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman in world Cricket.

Rules for the Omission of Articles

Till now, we’ve seen when and where the articles should be used. Now there are some instances when they shouldn’t be used. Let’s take a look at them.

No article should be used before a proper noun and a material noun.

Eg: Barack Obama (Not “The Barack Obama”), Narendra Modi, Detroit, Mumbai, Shanghai, Gold, Water, Silver etc…

No article should be used before the names of languages, diseases, seasons, sports, parts of the human body etc…

Eg: English is a global language (Not ‘The English’).
Soccer is watched by millions of people (Not ‘The Soccer’).
Cancer is a deadly disease (Not ‘The Cancer’).
Liver is the largest gland in our body (Not ‘The Liver’).

No article should be used before the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ when they are used in a general sense. However, when they are spoken particularly, ‘the’ should be used before them. For example,

Man is mortal (Not ‘the man’). However,
‘The man’ sitting next to her is my husband.

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