English Grammar - Article: 98 MCQs with Answers

The correct answer is 'an'. The choice between 'a' and 'an' depends on the sound with which the following word begins, not on its spelling. The abbreviation 'N. R. I.' is read letter by letter as 'en-aar-eye', and the first letter N is pronounced with the vowel sound /e/. Since it begins with a vowel sound, the article 'an' is used, as in an M.P., an S.P., an F.I.R. and an hour. 'The' would wrongly make it definite, and omitting the article is not possible before a singular countable noun.

The first blank needs the indefinite article ‘a’, because ‘lunch’ is here a particular countable event, a meal arranged for an occasion, rather than the uncountable idea of the meal in general. The second blank takes no article, since ‘in honour of’ is a fixed prepositional phrase in which ‘honour’ is used abstractly and never carries an article. The third blank takes the definite article ‘the’, because an organisation has only one new director and the person is therefore uniquely identified for both speaker and listener.

'The' is used before names of rivers, and 'the Ganga' correctly follows this rule.

The definite article 'the' is used before superlative adjectives: 'the tallest'.

'The' is used before unique objects like 'the sun', 'the moon', 'the earth'.

'The' is conventionally used before names of musical instruments: 'play the guitar'.

'The' is used before adjectives used as nouns to represent a class of people: 'the poor'.

'Honest' begins with a silent 'h', so it takes the vowel-sound article 'an', not 'a'.

'University' begins with a consonant sound /j/, so it takes 'a', not 'an', despite starting with a vowel letter.