English for Postal /Sorting Assistant Examination 2015

English Paper : Tricks

Articles are of TWO types. They are

1. Indefinite article  ----      A / An
2. Definite article   ----      The

What's the difference?

If you want to say about ANY item, you should use the articles A / An. If you want to say about a SPECIFIC item, you should use the article THE.

Confused? Lets see an example. Assume that you've selected for a Bank Exam. You have a stupid friend like me. So obviously She will ask you a party.

Suppose if She says

• Lets go to a Restaurant, that means She doesn't have any specific restaurant in Her mind. So you can give her party in ANY cheap restaurant.  But,
• If she says Lets go to THE restaurant, that means She has some SPECIFICATIONS. I mean she have a specific restaurant in her mind. So you cant escape ;)

Well, this is the basic difference between A/An and The. There are so many differences and usages of these articles. We shall discuss them later.

Ok, lets discuss about the Indefinite articles first.

Indefinite Articles :

A : The indefinite article 'a' is used before singular countable nouns that start with a Consonant sound.

An : The indefinite article 'an" is used before singular countable nouns that start with a Vowel sound. 

Wow, Nice definitions. No?

Have a look at some examples,

A :

• A Bat
• A Cat
• A Rat
• A Jug

An :

• An Apple
• An Egg
• AN Ink-Bottle
• An Orange
• An Umbrella

Great,

Now tell me, what should I use before the words European, One-Eyed Beggar, University, Useful Website?

Can I say, Postalassistanteams is an Useful site to know about Postal  Exams? 

NO

why ?

Please Re-Read the definitions. Here we are talking about Vowel and Consonant SOUNDS. Not the Letters. People often confuse with this. They blindly put A before a word, if it starts with a Vowel letter (A, E, I, O, U) and put An before the word which starts with the consonant letter. 

Consider the SOUND, not the LETTER.

Confusing?  Lets see a short cut for this. 

• If a word starts with a SWAR (Any of the Indian Language) sound, then we should use An before it.
• If a word starts with a Vyanjan (An of the Indian Language) sound, then we should use A before it.

Have a look at this picture,

so, now see these examples,

A :

• A European
• A One-Eyed beggar
• A University
• A Useful Website

An:

• An hour
• An Honest Man
• An honourable person

Thats it.

Now lets see some more TRICKY examples in English.