🅰️ Articles — A, An, The

📌 1. A or An — the Sound Rule

📌 2. Uses of A/An

• A singular countable noun mentioned for the first time: I saw a dog.
• Profession: She is a doctor. Rate: fifty rupees a kilo, twice a week.
• Exclamations: What a beautiful day! Phrases: a few, a little, a lot of, in a hurry, at a loss, make a noise.

📌 3. Uses of "The"

• Something already mentioned or specific: The dog I saw was black.
• Unique things: the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky.
• Rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, island groups: the Ganga, the Arabian Sea, the Himalayas, the Thar, the Andamans.
• Holy books, newspapers, ships, trains: the Gita, the Hindu, the Titanic, the Rajdhani Express.
• Superlatives and ordinals: the best, the first, the only. Musical instruments: play the guitar.
• Countries with plural/union names: the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, the Philippines.
• The + comparative … the + comparative: The more you read, the more you learn.

📌 4. Where NO Article is Used

• Proper nouns, languages, subjects: Ram, Hindi, Physics (but the Hindi language).
• Meals, games, most diseases: have lunch, play cricket, suffer from malaria.
• School, church, hospital, prison, bed for their primary purpose: go to school (to study), go to the school (for another reason).
• Single mountain peaks, lakes, cities: Mount Everest, Dal Lake, Mumbai.
• By + transport: by bus, by train. Abstract/material nouns in a general sense: Honesty is the best policy. Gold is costly.

📌 5. Practice MCQs