Question

Complete the sentence using one of the following words. Use a/an where necessary.
It wasn’t your fault. It was________ accident.

a. an
b. a
c. the
d. no article

Answer 1

Hint: There are three articles ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ that are used to denote specific and non-specific or particular nouns. Articles ‘a’, ‘an’ are referred to as indefinite articles and ‘the’ is referred to as a definite article.

Complete answer:
In this case, we will analyze each option one by one keeping in mind the hint given above and the grammar rules regarding the use of articles.

> Option A is ‘an’ which is an indefinite article. Article ‘an’ is basically used before those words that start with a vowel sound. The word accident starts with the sound ‘ae’ which is a vowel sound.
Therefore, option A can be the correct answer.

> ‘A’ is also an indefinite article but it is used before consonant sounds. Since in this case, the word accident starts with a vowel sound, therefore, option B will be incorrect.

> ‘The’ is a definite article. It is used to denote some particular or unique thing or a proper noun. But an accident is not a proper noun. Therefore, option C is also incorrect.

> In this sentence, there is a need for an article as the sentence will be grammatically incorrect and incomplete without the use of the article. Therefore option D will be incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is option A.

Note: The articles are used to modify nouns. They are adjectives that come before nouns to denote if the noun is specific or non-specific.