Question

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate articles:
He wanted to become _____ artist and live in _____ Himalayas.

Answer 1

Hint: An article is a word which defines a noun as specific or unspecific.
The articles themselves come under a broader umbrella of words called determiners.

Complete answer:
The three articles which are used in the English language are a, an and the.
The three articles, according to their usage, are grouped into some categories. They are;
- The definite article: It includes ‘the’. For e.g., I read the book. By using the word ‘the’ we are trying to convey that we read a specific or a definite book.
- The indefinite article: It includes ‘a’ and ‘an’. For e.g., I read a book. By using the word ‘a’ we are saying that we read any random book, nothing specific. If the following noun starts with a vowel, then we use the word ‘an’. For e.g., I read an article.
- Proper article: It includes ‘the’, and it indicates that the following noun is a proper noun. For e.g. the Amazon River, the United States.

For the first blank, we do not have any reference about what kind of an artist the subject wanted to become. Therefore, it is a random artist. Thus, the correct article to be used should be indefinite, i.e. ‘a’ or ‘an’ and it should be ‘an’ because the noun starts with a vowel.
For the second blank, the blank is followed by a proper noun i.e. Himalayas (which is the name of a mountain range). Therefore, we shall use a proper article i.e. the.

Thus, the correct answer is; He wanted to become an artist and live in the Himalayas.

Note:
- Another type of article that is used in English is the partitive article.
- They are not called articles, rather they are called determiners.
- These are different classes of words that are used to express the reference of a noun to a context. For e.g. some, no, this, which etc.