Question

Fill in the blanks with most appropriate word-
This is ____ lion that I saw in the circus yesterday.
a) A
b) No article
c) The
d) An
e) Any

Answer 1

Hint: An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiably of the referents of the noun phrases. In English, both “the” and “a” are articles, which combine with a noun to form a noun phrase.

Complete answer:
 The given sentence conveys that the speaker is seeing a lion which he/she saw in the circus the last day. We have to fill in the blank with the correct article.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer -
Option ‘a’ is “A”. It is used with consonant sounds whereas article ‘an’ is used with vowel sounds. We cannot fill in the blank before “lion”. This is the incorrect option. So, we will eliminate this option.
Option ‘b' is No article. This option would be correct only if there is no article has to be used in the given blank.
Option ‘c’ is “The”. This is used to refer to a specific or particular member of a group. For example, “I just saw the most popular movie of the year.” It can be used in the blank.
Option ‘d’ is “An”. It is used after a vowel. There is no vowel used in ‘lion’. So, this is the incorrect option. So, we will eliminate this option.
Option ‘e’ is “Any”. This is not an article and cannot be used in the blank.
Hence, option ‘c’ is the correct option.

Note:
There is one more kind of article, which is a Proper Article. A proper article indicates that its noun is proper, and refers to a unique entity. It may be the name of a person, the name of a place, the name of a planet, etc.