ARTICLES AND POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

Two special kinds of adjectives are the articles and the possessive pronouns.

Articles

Articles are the words a, an and the.

A and an are special adjectives called indefinite articles.

They are used when the nouns they modify do not refer to any particular thing.

Examples:

A student rang the bells (no specific student)

An orange is good for your health. (no specific orange)

A is used before a noun that begins with a consonant sound.

An is used before a noun that begins with a vowel sound.

Note that it is the first sound of a noun, not the spelling, that determines whether to use a or an.

Examples:

An hour an heir

A hall

There is a special adjective known as the definite article.

It is used to refer to particular things.

Examples:

The tourist was robbed.

(a particular tourist).

The team began practicing at 8 o’clock (a particular team).

All articles are adjectives.

The is used with both singular and plural nouns, but a and an are used with singular nouns

Examples:

The tourist, the tourists, a tourist

The adjective, the adjectives, an adjective

Exercise

Choose the correct article from the choices given in brackets in the following sentences.

1. (A, An) mountain climber climbed Mt. Elgon.
2. He went up a cliff and was stranded on (a, an) jagged rock.
3. No one knew (a, the) route he had taken.
4. (The, An) climber’s friend called the local police.
5. The police began the search within (a, an) hour.
6. A police dog followed (a, an) climber’s scent.
7. A helicopter began (a, an) air search of the mountain.
8. The dog followed the climber’s scent to (a, the) jagged edge of the cliff.
9. A climber from (a, the) police team went down the jagged rock.
10. (A, An) rope was tied to the climber and he was pulled to safety.

Possessive Pronouns

The words my, her, its, our and theirs are possessive pronouns, but they can also be used as adjectives.

These modifiers tell which one, which ones or whose?

Examples: My brother likes Sean Paul, but his sister does not.

Of his songs, ever blazing is his favourite.

Our school produces heroes, its fame is widespread.

Exercise

Write the adjectives from the following sentences and the nouns they modify.

1. In her lifetime, Brenda Fasie composed many songs.
2. Her early songs entertained her fans all over the world.
3. Our first performance was successful.
4. Her coughing grew worse with time.
5. They agreed that it was their best goal in ten years.

 

See also:

INTERROGATIVE ADJECTIVES

DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ADJECTIVES

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES

DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES

ADJECTIVES