Where Learn Articles?

1. Why and when do we use the indefinite article A?

We use A to determine a singular count noun with a consonant initial sound like-- a cat, a bat, a boy, a kite, a utopian society, a ewe, a European, a university, a eugenist, a UPS, a UNESCO member, a xylophone, a Uruguayan, etc.

With certain numbers like -- a hundred, a million, a billion, a thousand, etc.

Before the words like a half, a half, one and a half kilo, a kilo and a half, a half-holiday, four times a day, before meals only if they are special ones, as; I had a good dinner last night.

2. Why and when do we use the indefinite article AN?

We use AN to determine a singular count noun with a vowel initial sound notwithstanding the words/nouns starts with a vowel or a consonant letter, as:  an honest man, an umbrella, an hour, an FBI agent, an MBBS doctor, an SSP officer, an interesting story, an XL mobike, an astronaut, an imperial soap, an owl, an MA in English, an eraser, etc.

3. Why and when do we use the indefinite article THE?

We sue The to determine a particular count and non-count noun. Its use indicates that both the speaker or writer and the listener or reader share a definite knowledge about the noun referred to. Like: The milk in the bottle is soured. He is the one-eyed man that I saw yesterday. The sweet Supriyaa gave me was an exotic one.

Also, we use the before the following nouns/words. Look at these words/nouns carefully and retain them in your memory.

1)     The noun has been qualified by an adjective clause: as the pen that I bought yesterday is on the table.

2)     The names of rivers: as; the Bagmati, the Trishuli, the Gandaki, the Narayani, the Koshi, the Hudson, the Thames, etc.

3)     The names of theatres or the cinemas (halls): as the Odeon, the Gopi Krishna Movies, the Kumari, the Guna Cinema, etc.

4)     Superlative degree of adjectives: as; the most intelligent girl is Hritika, the best boy is Harry Potter

5)     Names of plural surnames: as the Koiralas, the Shresthas, the Bhusals, the Pradhans, the Karkis, the Bhandaris, the Smiths, etc.

6)    Names of oceans and seas: the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic, the               Dead Sea, etc.

7)     Names of different parts of a house (if they are only one of them): as; the kitchen, the verandah, the store, etc.

8)     Names of ordinals: as; the first, the second, the last, the only son, the 21^st, the 99^th, the 11^th, the 42^nd, the 60^th the 88^th, etc.

9)     Names of newspapers, as; The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, The Rising Nepal, The Sunday Post, etc.

10)    Names of political parties, as; The Congress Party of India, The CPN-UML, The Conservative, The Republic, etc.

11)   Name of deserts: as; the Sahara, the Kalahari, the Thar, the Gobi, etc.

12)   Titles of people followed by of, as; the Duke of Edinburgh, the King of Nepal, the President of the      USA,

13)  Names of musical instruments: as the guitar, the harmonium, the flute, the clarinet, the bass, the tom-tom, the tabla, etc.

14)  Names of animals to represent the whole class, species or their kinds, as; the cow, the tiger is an endangered animal, etc.

15)  Names of mountain ranges: as; the Himalayas, the Alps, the Arawallis, the Bindhyanchal, the Khasi Hills, the Nilgiris, the Rockies, etc.

16)  Names of the organs of our body: the skin, the nose, the heart, the gall, the esophagus, the eye, the liver, the lungs, etc. 

17)  When only two things are compared: as; She is the taller of the two. He is the better of the two, etc.

18)  Names of religious books: as; the Ramayana, the Gita, The Bible, the Koran, the Guru Granth Shahib, the Mahabharata, etc.

19)  When churches, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, courts, prisons, beds, etc. are referred for secondary purposes: as; My father went to the school to pay my bills. The policeman went to the university to arrest some students.

20)  Names of states and countries that are plural: as; the Philippines the Netherlands, etc.

21)  Names of a group of islands: as; the Lakshadweeps, the Andaman and Nichobars, the Maldives, etc.

22)  Names of famous buildings and historical monuments: as; the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, the white house, the Dumas, the Cromwell, the Parliament, The Big Ben, the Durbar Square, the Hanuman Dhoka, the Narayanhiti Palace, etc.

23)  Names of the chief (position) of an organization, or an institution: as; the principal, the director, the manager, etc.

24)   With parts of the day: as; the morning, the evening, the afternoon, etc.

25)  Names of unions and co-operations: as; the labor union, the oil corporation, etc.

26)  With adjectives to represent a whole class of people: as; the poor, the unprivileged, the minority, the marginalized, etc.

27)  With a singular professional noun after a proper name: as; Gita the nurse, Hari the doctor, Binita the actress, etc.

28)  before words referred in a general way: as; the weather, the climate, the human race, the ground, the atmosphere, the sea the public, the wind, the sky, the environment, the future, the past, the radio, the piano, etc.

29)  With nouns before a phrase beginning of (the noun + of + noun): as; the sound of gunfire, the Bay of Bengal, etc.

30)  With names of choirs, musical bands, orchestras, etc. as; the Beatles, the Uglyz, the Nepathya, the Philadelphia Orchestra, etc.

31)  With abbreviations: as; the UNO, the CIA, the SBI, the ISI, the CBI, the USA, the USSR, the WTO, the IMO, the UNEFPA, the FAO, DFID, the USAID, the IBM, the HIV but not with acronyms: as; UNESCO, NATO, SAARC, BIMSTEC, SAFTA, ICIMOD, UNEP, AIDS, JICA, ECOSOC, GEMS, etc.

32)  With proper/ nationality names (adj + noun) or (noun +of +noun): as; the National Gallery, the University of California, etc.

33)  With addresses beginning with two or more addresses (the Misses +surname): as; the Misses Ghimire, the Messrs Poudyal, etc.

34)  A unique noun (only one of its kind): as; the sun, the earth, etc. 

35)  With a positive degree of adjectives plus a proper name: as; the intelligent Radha, the beautiful Mohini, the sweet Subina, the lazy Bibek, the clever Supriyaa, the hardworking Somila, the tall Suraj, the easygoing Bhavin, the sporty Gaurav, the gracious Bindiya, the little Bishal, the clever Jenisa, the loving baby, the gentle Samee, the honest Vibhab, the cunning Sandy, etc.

36)  With the nationality adjectives: as; the Nepali, the British, the Indian, the afghan, the Iraqi, the Israeli the French, the Japanese, etc.

37)  With even names of people if there is more than one person with the same names: as; I want to talk to the Raju in Black. You mean the Raju in white? etc.

38)  With names of religious groups/races: as; the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, The Jains, the Christians, The Protestants, the Catholics, etc.

39)  Before names of directions & dates and, decades and centuries: as; in the west, to the west, in the south, the third of Falgun, Magh the 14^th, the 15^th, January the 22^nd, the 80s, the 1920s, the 90s, the 15^th century, the 21^st century, etc.

40)  But North France, South-East China, East Bengal, West Pakistan. Don’t use articles before the names of Companies, ok? Sony, Intel, & Samsung, etc.

41)  With a comparative degree of adjective to relate a cause and effect: as; The higher you go, the colder you feel. The harder you study, the better your result will be. The sooner you come, the earlier you can go, etc.

42)  With proper nouns only when qualified by an adjectival or adjectival clause: as; The immortal Devkota, the Brave Amar Singh, The Brave Lakhan Thapa sacrificed everything for the sake of democracy, etc.

43)  With nouns that give the force of a superlative or are emphasized: as; Cricket is the game of today, Soccer is the game I like, Manul is the student of ‘AIIMS’, Dog is the animal that we like, Sunita is the girl in our class, etc.

44)  When common nouns tend to give an abstract meaning/name: as; the hero in him was still alive, the hand he got from his friends can’t be overlooked; the eyes she gave were absolutely commendable, etc.

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