Question

Choose the correct articles to fill in the blanks:
Ranu’s uncle is _______ S.D.O and her aunt is _____ M.L.A.
(a)a,a
(b)an,an
(c)a,an
(d)an,a

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and understand the message it conveys. Now go through the options and use the ‘hit and trial’ method to check which one of them fits the context of the given sentence.

Complete answer: There are 3 articles- a, an, the. “A” is used before words beginning with a consonant. “An” is used before words beginning with a vowel or a pronunciation which takes the help of a vowel. “The” is used before proper nouns or some particular person, place or thing.
Let us analyse the given options.
(a)Ranu’s uncle is a S.D.O and her aunt is a M.L.A. When we pronounce “S.D.O” and “M.L.A”, we pronounce it as “es-D-O” and “em-L-A”. So they start with vowels. Using “a” before them is wrong.
(b)Ranu’s uncle is an S.D.O and her aunt is an M.L.A. Since their pronunciations are es-D-O and em-L-A where e is a vowel, we use “an”. Thus, this is the correct option.
(c)Ranu’s uncle is a S.D.O and her aunt is an M.L.A. Both S.D.O and M.L.A start with the pronunciation of “e” which is a vowel. Thus, both the words will need “an” before them and not just before “M.L.A”. So this is an incorrect option.
(d)Ranu’s uncle is an S.D.O and her aunt is a M.L.A. As explained in option c, we need to use “an” before both the words because the pronunciation of both of them start with the vowel “e”. This option has “a” before “M.L.A” which is wrong. Thus, this whole option is wrong.
The correct answer is option b, that is, “an” should be used in both the blanks- Ranu’s uncle is an S.D.O and her aunt is an M.L.A.

Note: Students might get confused between option a and b because of the general rule of using “a” before words starting with consonants and “an” before vowels. However, sometimes we need to check whether the pronunciation is of a vowel or a consonant.