6th Class English Articles Indefinite Article 'A' and 'An'

     Introduction

In English language there are three articles. They are: "A", "An" and "The".  

These three articles are divided into two parts, as follow:

(i) Indefinite Articles - "a" and "an"

(ii) Definite Article - the  

        Indefinite Article 'A' and 'An'

'A' is used before a word which starts from consonant or vowel but sounds like a consonant. (All the letters of English alphabet except 'A', 'E', 'l', 'O', 'U')  

A book, a pen, a chair, a one rupee note, etc.

An is used before a word which starts from vowel or consonant but sounds like vowel.  

An apple, an egg, an honest man, etc.

See the following examples:

A one eyed man.

Here "A" is used before "one" because "One" sounds like Wone or Vone which is a consonant.

A university.

Here University sounds like Yuniversity which is a consonant.

An M.L.A.

Here M.L.A. sounds like 'Am al a' which is a vowel.  

      See some other uses of indefinite articles

1.      We use "a / an" when we use noun/pronoun for the first time is a sentence.

He is wearing a suit and a tie.

They have a cat.

2.      We use a / an to say what kind of person or thing someone or something is (often with an adjective or to say it belongs to a particular group.

You have a nice house.

That's a very expensive car!

A cat is an animal A bus is a vehicle

3.      We use a/an to talk about someone's job.

My wife is an optician.

She works as a mechanic.  

       Remember

(i) Indefinite Article are not used with uncountable noun.

(ii) Article is not used before the name of games.

For example: She plays ludo.

(iii) Article is not used before some diseases like Cholera, Malaria, fever and typhoid, etc.

(iv) Article is not used before the name of festivals.

(v) Article is not used before plural Countable Nouns when they indicate a class.

(vi) No article is used before the names of language.

(vii) No article is used before Proper Noun, Material Noun and Abstract Nouns.