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We use articles as determiners, ‘the’ refers to definiteness and ‘a’ and ‘an’ refer to indefiniteness, and in most of the cases they come before a noun or noun phrase. But sometimes we don’t find rules followed, when the is used in generic term, for example in the sentence: ‘The child is the father of man’, the is not indicating a child but child in general. Now we would study how an article is used and how they work.
Generic reference
Indefinite article:
A man should be wise.
A dog can be a nice friend.
An elephant is a big animal.
Definite article:
The people are wise.
The dog is my best friend.
The house is beautiful.
Specific Reference
Definite article:
He went to Dubai, the place is nice.
I like Kolkata, the town has so much to explore.
Indefinite article:
I want to buy a pen.
He wants to visit a park.
Exercises
A. Find out the articles, and identify for whom they are used.
a. He wanted to visit a fair, where he could bought a doll.
b. The chair was broken, and a boy took it.
c. Don’t eat the water, it is dirty.
d. No one likes the bad boy who killed a dog.
e. You should never kill an animal.
f. Tiger is a beautiful animal.
g. Go to a shop and buy some tea leaves.
h. Give me a glass.
i. Always speak the truth.
j. You all can do the best.
k. Chhaya is the most beautiful girl in the class.
l. Sankar is an artist.
