Question

Fill in the blank with the correct article:
Banaras is ____ holy city.

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

Answer 1

Hint: The ‘h’ is the word ‘holy’ is pronounced, it is not silent. This will determine the article, as you choose the article according to the sound that follows it. Since the word starts with a consonant sound, there is only one article that can be used here.

Complete answer:

An article is a word that is used with a noun to specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun and in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. It helps us to understand the complete meaning of the sentence and is capable of even changing the meaning of the sentence.

For example, in the sentence ‘She handed us a dog’, uses the article ‘a’ to describe the number of dogs. There can be room for interpretation here. There can be multiple dogs, however, only one was handed to them.
But, in the sentence ‘She handed us the dog’, the article ‘the’ makes it clear that there is only one dog being handed.

Now, let’s look at the given options:

a - The article ‘a’ is used before a word that begins with a consonant sound. The word ‘holy’ is pronounced with a consonant sound. And, Banaras is one of many holy cities. So, the correct answer is “Option a ”.
an - The article ‘an’ is used before a word that begins with a vowel sound. So, this is an incorrect option.
no article - This is an incorrect option because there needs to be an article before a noun in the given context.
the - This article implies that Banaras is the main and only holy city, which is wrong. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note: Pronounce the word ‘holy’. The sound that you make will influence the article, however, note the difference between the articles ‘a/an’ and ‘the’. They can change the meaning of the sentence.