Articles 'a' and 'an'

Articles 'a' and 'an' mean 'one'.


We use ‘a’ for a word which begins with a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y or z).

Examples:

a boy, a cat, a dog, a flower, a girl, a house, a jar, a king, a lion, a man, a nurse, a pencil, a queen, a ruler, a seal, a table, a vase, a worm, a xylophone, a yacht, a zoo, etc.


We use ‘an’ for a word which begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, or u).

Examples:

an apple, an airplane, an axe, an alligator, an egg, an eel, an elephant, an eagle, an eraser, an insect, an ice cream, an igloo, an iguana, an inspector, an orange, an owl, an orang-utan, an ox, an octopus, an umbrella, an uncle, an antelope, an acrobat, etc.

Exercises

A. Fill in the blanks with ‘a’ or ‘an’.

1. ______________ book

2. ______________ giraffe

3. ______________ ocean

4. ______________ magazine

5. ______________ postman

6. ______________ airport

7. ______________ bridge

8. ______________ book

9. ______________ earthworm

10. ______________ cucumber

11. ______________ iceberg

12. ______________ helicopter

13. ______________ dictionary

14. ______________ fan

15. ______________ ostrich

16. ______________ emperor

17. ______________ computer

18. ______________ bungalow

19. ______________ island

20. ______________ onion


B. Fill in the blanks with ‘a’ or ‘an’.

1. ______________ aircraft

2. ______________ idol

3. ______________ telephone

4. ______________ orchard

5. ______________ cup

6. ______________ monkey

7. ______________ clock

8. ______________ earplug

9. ______________ watermelon

10. ______________ office

11. ______________ student

12. ______________ pigeon

13. ______________ van

14. ______________ image

15. ______________ poster

16. ______________ feather

17. ______________ eel

18. ______________ olive

19. ______________ teacher

20. ______________ alley


Answers

A.

1.a 2.a 3.an 4.a 5.a 6.an 7.a 8.a 9.an 10.a 11.an 12.a 13.a 14.a 15.an 16.an 17.a 18.a 19.an 20.an


B.

1.an 2.an 3.a 4.an 5.a 6.a 7.a 8.an 9.a 10.an 11.a 12.a 13.a 14.an 15.a 16.a 17.an 18.an 19.a 20.an