Articles and Determiners Questions and Answers

Answer: D

No article is needed: He always practised ahimsa.

Ahimsa (non-violence) is an abstract, uncountable noun used here in its general sense, like truth, honesty or patience. Such nouns take no article when they name the quality in general: He practised patience; He valued honesty.

A and an are used only with singular countable nouns, and the ahimsa would point to some particular, already identified ahimsa, which the sentence does not.

Answer: A

The blank takes a: I first met him a year ago.

In expressions of time with ago, a single unit takes the indefinite article: a year ago, a week ago, an hour ago. Year begins with the consonant sound /j/, so the article is a, not an.

The year ago is not idiomatic, and without an article (year ago) the sentence is ungrammatical, since year is a singular countable noun.

Answer: C

No article is needed: He sent word that he would come soon.

To send word is a fixed idiom meaning to send a message or news. In this sense word is used without any article, as in to bring word and to leave word.

A word and the word change the meaning to a single word or a particular word, and an word is wrong in any case, since word starts with a consonant sound.

Answer: B

The correct article is an: She is an LLB.

The choice between a and an depends on the first sound, not the first letter. LLB is read letter by letter, and the letter L is pronounced el, which begins with a vowel sound, so it takes an, as in an MLA or an MBA.

A would be right only before a consonant sound (a lawyer, a law graduate). The would point to a particular, already known LLB, which the sentence does not. Since an fits, 'None of these' is wrong.

Answer: A

The correct article is the: Have you finished reading the novel I lent you ?

The novel is a specific one, identified by the clause I lent you. A noun made definite by a following defining clause takes the definite article the.

A and an are indefinite: they introduce some novel or other, which clashes with the speaker naming exactly which book is meant. An is also wrong for sound, since novel begins with a consonant sound. As the fits, 'None of these' is wrong.

Answer: C

The correct article is the: The Maths. teacher is absent today.

The sentence refers to one particular teacher whom speaker and listener both know, the person who teaches Maths in their school or class. A noun that is unique in the shared context takes the definite article.

A Maths teacher is absent would mean some unspecified Maths teacher, which is not how one reports a known teacher's absence. An is impossible because Maths begins with a consonant sound. Since the fits, 'None of these' is wrong.

Answer: B

The answer is One, a: 'One of my friends advised me to take a taxi home.'

'One of my friends' names a single friend, which agrees with the singular action. 'A taxi' uses the indefinite article because any taxi is meant, not a particular one already mentioned.

'No of my friends' is ungrammatical (it would be 'none'), 'More of my friends' does not fit 'advised me' as a single act of advice, and 'some taxi' is unidiomatic for a single vehicle.

Answer: B

The article is The: 'The old are respected by the young.'

The is placed before certain adjectives to make them stand for a whole class of people: the old (old people), the young, the poor, the rich. Such phrases are plural, which is why the verb is are. The same sentence already uses this pattern in 'by the young'.

A and an are used with singular countable nouns and cannot turn an adjective into a plural class. With no article, 'Old are respected' is ungrammatical.

Answer: A

The correct article is The: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Here pen does not mean one particular pen but the whole class of things it stands for, writing and ideas, contrasted with the sword, force. A singular noun used to represent its whole class takes the definite article the, as in the horse is a noble animal. The proverb is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play Richelieu (1839).

A would mean any single pen, an is used only before a vowel sound, and leaving out the article is ungrammatical with a singular countable noun.

Answer: A

No article is needed, marked X: 'Man is the only animal that uses fire.'

When man is used in the general sense of the human race or mankind, it takes no article, just as one says 'Man is mortal'. The sentence makes a statement about humanity as a whole, not about one particular man.

'A man' or 'an man' would refer to a single, unspecified man, and 'an' is impossible before the consonant sound of man. 'The man' would point to a particular man already known. None of these gives the general sense the sentence needs.