Question

Choose the correct articles to fill in the blanks:

______ French is _________ easy language to learn.

a) The, an
b) No article required, an
c) A, an
d) No article required, a

Answer 1

Hint: Indefinite articles are usually used before a noun that is general or when its identity is not known. Definite articles are used when the identity is certain, however not before a proper noun.

Complete answer:
Indefinite articles are used for a thing or person when the reader doesn’t know which one we are referring to out of many nouns. It is used for denoting the random nature of an object.
‘The’ is used as a definite article for a thing or person when the reader knows which one we are exactly referring to. It states the specific nature of the subject.
The word ‘French’ is a proper noun. So, there will not be any article in front of it, as it is already a distinct noun. However, the word ‘language’ is a common noun. The word ‘easy’ comes before it, which makes a vowel sound.

Now, let’s look at the given options:

a) the, an - The first blank should be left empty. So, this is incorrect as there should be no definite article before ‘French’. The second blank is correct. However, this is an incorrect option.
b) no article required, an - The first blank should be left empty. So, this is correct as there should be no definite article before ‘French’. The second blank is correct. So, this is the correct option.
c) a, an - The first blank should be left empty. So, this is incorrect as there should be no indefinite article before ‘French’. The second blank is correct. However, this is an incorrect option.
d) no article required, a - The first blank should be left empty. So, this is correct as there should be no definite article before ‘French’. The second blank is incorrect as there is a vowel sound after the blank. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note:
Choose the option which is used in a general sense. To choose the correct indefinite article, pronounce the word after it. If it is a vowel sound, there will be only one correct option. That will be the correct answer for the given sentence.