10/04/12

In the following sentences supply the articles (a, an, or the) if they are necessary. If no article is necessary, leave the space blank.

  1. Jason’s father bought him a bicycle that he had wanted for his birthday.
  2. Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from France to United States.
  3. Rita is studying English and Math this semester.
  4. A judge asked the witness to tell the truth.
  5. Please give me a cup of coffee with cream and sugar.
  6. A big books on the table are for my history class.
  7. No one in The Spanish class knew the correct answer to Mrs.Perez’s question.
  8. My car is four years old and it still runs well.
  9. When you go to the store, please buy a bottle of chocolate milk and a dozen oranges.
  10. There are only a few seats left for tonight’s musical at the university.
  11. John and Marcy went to school yesterday and then studied in the library before returning home.
  12. Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes in North America.
  13. On our trip Spain, we crossed The Atlantic Ocean.
  14. Mount Rushmore is the site of the magnificent tribute to the four great American presidents.
  15. What did you eat for breakfast this morning ?
  16. Louie played basketball and baseball at The Boy’s Club this year.
  17. Rita plays a violin and her sister plays a guitar.
  18. While we were in Alaska, we saw The Eskimo village.
  19. Phill can’t go to the movies tonight because he has to write an essay.
  20. David attended The Princenton University.
  21. Harry has been admitted to The School of Medicine at Midwestern university.
  22. Mel’s grandmother is in hospital, so we went to visit her last night.
  23. The political science class is taking a trip to Soviet Union in the spring.
  24. Queen Elizabeth II is a monarch of The Great Britain.
  25. The Declaration of Independence was drawn up in 1776.
  26. Scientists hope to send an expedition to Mars during 1980s.
  27. Last night there was a bird singing outside my house.
  28. The chair that you are sitting in is broken.
  29. The Civil War was fought in United States between 1861 and 1865.
  30. Florida State University is smaller than University of Florida.

Choose the correct form of the verb in parentheses in the following sentences.

Choose the correct form of the verb in parentheses in the following sentences.

  1. John, along with twenty friends, are planning a party.
  2. The picture of the soldiers bring back manu memories.
  3. The quality of these recordings are not very good.
  4. If the duties of these officers aren’t reduced, there will not be enough time to finish the project.
  5. The effects of cigarette smoking have been proven to be extremely harmful.
  6. The use of credit cards in place of cash have increased rapidly in recent years.
  7. Advertisements on television are becoming more competitive than ever before.
  8. Living expenses in this country, as well as in many others, is an all-time high.
  9. Mr.Jones accompanied by several members of the committee has proposed some changes of the rules.
  10. The levels of intoxication vary from subject to subject.

Choose the correct form of the verb in the following sentences.

  1. Neither Bill nor Marry are going to the play tonight.
  2. Anything are better than going to another movie tonight.
  3. Skating is becoming more popular every day.
  4. A number of reporters were at the conference yesterday.
  5. Everybody who has a fever must go home immediately.
  6. Your glasses were on the bureau last night.
  7. There were some people at the meeting last night.
  8. The committee has already reached a decision.
  9. A pair of jeans were in the washing machine this morning.
  10. Each student have answered the first three questions.
  11. Either John or his wife makes breakfast each morning.
  12. After she had persued the material, the secretary decided that everything were in order.
  13. The crowd at the basketball game was wild with excitement.
  14. A pack of wild dogs has frightened all the ducks away.
  15. The jury is trying to reach a decision.
  16. The army has eliminated this section of the training test.
  17. The number of students who have withdrawn from class this quarter are appalling.
  18. There have been too many interruptions in this class.
  19. Every elementary school teacher has to take this examination.
  20. Neither Jill nor her parents have seen this movie before

a, an and the

Indefinite articles (a and an)

If indefinite articles are the proverbial thorn in your side, the good news is that you don't need a lot of grammatical jargon to understand their usage. You simply need your ears (okay, and maybe just a little grammatical jargon).

In English, a and an are indefinite articles, which means that they don't refer to anything definite or specific. If someone were to say, "Give me an apple," you might be inclined to run out and pick one from the tree outside, or you may even run to the store and buy one. By using the word an, the speaker has let you know that he or she is looking for any apple rather than a specific one.

The same can be said for the article a. If someone told you there's a dog on the road, you would probably want to go out and save it before a car came by. Furthermore, you would know it's not your best friend's dog because the speaker chose to use the word a rather than call the pooch by name. Hence, it's understood that the dog on the road is one of the millions of dogs in the world and is therefore not specific.

A and an are indefinite articles used to refer to a singular countable noun.

An indefinite article means that we don't know which one, or it is
not important.

A is used before a consonant (b,c,d,f,g,etc.): a car
An is used before a vowel (a,e,i,o,u) : an animal

*Tom lives in a town.
*Julie is reading an English book.
*We eat meat with a knife and a fork.

The definite article (the)

There is only one definite article in the English language (the), which means that you don't have to worry about listening for vowel sounds. The is used in front of singular or plural nouns and adjectives to refer to something with which both the speaker/writer and listener/reader are familiar. For example, if you're bouncing a basketball at school, your friend might say, "Give me the ball." In this case, both you and your friend recognize that there is only one specific ball being referred to, and that's the one you're bouncing. Your friend doesn't want a ball (meaning any ball); he or she wants the ball that you're holding.

The is a definite article used to talk about something specific.
*The town where Tom lives is very big.
*What book is Julie reading? She is reading the book Tom gave her.

The is also used to refer to:
*Rivers, seas, oceans :
the Mississippi, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic.
*Nationalities :
the British, the Americans, the Japanese