Question

Copper is _______ useful metal. (Fill in the blank with an appropriate article. )
A) An
B) The
C) No article
D) A

Answer 1

Hint: There are three articles in English language. A, An, The. Articles A and An are indefinite articles whereas the article ‘the’ is definite articles. It is used to refer to a particular entity. Example: “An apple a day, keeps a doctor away”. We are talking about apples in general. Example: “The girl in the red dress”. We are referring to a particular girl here who is wearing a red dress. The question indicates that in general , copper is useful.

Complete answer:
Let us analyse each option individually in detail to figure out the correct answer with the help of the above stated hint.

A) An : ‘An’ is an indefinite article used before words starting with vowels. Though the word ‘useful’ starts with a vowel ‘u’ but its sound is that of a consonant. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

B) The : ‘The’ is a definite article. We are not referring to any specific copper here. We are referring to ‘copper’ in general. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

C) No article : This is an incorrect option as we need an article to determine the specification of a word.

D) A : ‘A’ is an indefinite article used before words starting with vowels. Though the word ‘useful’ starts with a vowel ‘u’ but its sound is that of a consonant. Therefore, this is the correct option.

Hence, the correct answer is option D.

Note: After implying the answer, the sentence becomes “Copper is a useful metal”. The articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ are indefinite nouns and are used before non specific nouns whose identity is not known. Example: A man in the train. The article ‘an’ is used before the words which start with vowels (a,e,i,o,u) but the word should not have a consonant sound. Example: An umbrella.