Articles & Determiners

Articles:
Definite Indefinite
The A/An
Let’s understand their meanings:
Definite means ‘SURE, CERTAIN’. SURE about what?  About
Noun or Adjectve+Noun etc e.g. Great/Big Rivers=the Yamuna, the Brahmputra, or
some offices/Posts the Army Headquarters, the Principal, The Editor, the Prime
Minister, or Great Books, The Mountain Ranges (=The Himalayas, the Alps) Unique
Objects(=the moon, the sun, the Poles, the West, the earth),
Races/Castes/Subcastes=The Hindus, the rich, the Brahmins, the Sharmas, the poor,
the sick etc. Superlative Degree=the best, the happiest, the most intelligent student etc
Remember ‘the’ is same for singular & plural. In nutshell, the is used for persons,
places or things for which you are sure that you’ve known them already. You know

Hindi Consonants ( व््यनजन ). So take care ‘the’ should be used before a consonant
sound keeping in mind above points. No need of mugging up. Nor should you worry too
much about the rules. Just once in a while you pay attention to have a glance.
Let’s know meaning of A/An =Any
=One
=Per
Milk is sold at Rs. 30 per kilo. = Milk is sold at Rs. 30 a kilo. ½
kilo=half a kilo etc.
I met a boy. (=Any boy) The boy (Now you know him, so the is used) was buying a pen.
(Here if the boy was buying some special pen=one pen, or the boy was not interested in
any particular pen then=

ििनदी के सवर: अ, आ, इ, ई, ओ, औ, इनगििश भाषा मे वाऊि साउनड िै । In English normally a,

e, I, o, u, and silent h are known to produce vowel sound. This may be

good for European or such other languages which do not have as
exactness as Hindi. So, in my opinion, in Hindi we have better letters to
understand vowel sound ( Written above)
Use of a/ an=

Remember a/ an is used before singular countable noun. A boy. A Girl. An

umbrella. An ugly woman. ( Note: a university teacher, a European

Company, an MLA, an SSP) Can you guess why so= pay attention to

beginning sound)

DO NOT USE A/AN BEFORE: 

1. Before plural countable nouns
2. Before names of meals, except when they are preceded by an adjective.
‘The’ is NOT used before: 
1. Names of People
2. Names of Places
3. Before abstract nouns except when they are used in a particular sense.
e.g. Men are mortal but
the death of the President left his party without a leader.
4. Before the names of games. He plays cricket.
5. Before parts of body
6. Articles of clothing as these usually prefer a possessive adjective. Lift your right
hand. She took off her coat.
But: He was hit on the head. (Think why ‘the’)
7. ‘nature’ where it the spirit creating the world of plants & animals. If you interfere
with nature you will suffer for it.
8. Omit ‘the’ before home, church, hospital, prison, school etc if one is not a regular
visitor to these places ‘the’ is used & before work, sea and town.
9. If you have understood let me know so that I should give you practice exercises
next time.