Question

Fill in the blanks with the most suitable articles-
_____ Amazon is ____ longest river in the world.
a. The, the
b. No article, the
c. No article, no article
d. The, no article

Answer 1

Hint: Definite article ‘the’ is used to indicate proper nouns or the particular nouns that are known to the readers.

Complete answer:
As given in the hint, there are two types of articles; Definite and Indefinite articles.

Let’s understand these two types of articles in detail-
Definite Article- ‘The’ is a definite article that is used to mention particular things or proper nouns that are known to the readers. Example- The Bible, the Mahabharata, the Ganga etc.
Indefinite Articles- ‘A and an’ are indefinite articles that are used to mention general things or common nouns that are unknown to the readers. Example- A girl, an apple, a book, an umbrella etc.
In the given question- We are talking about a special quality of a specific river. Hence, we will use the definite article.

Now, let’s examine the given options-
a. The, the- We will use the definite article ‘the’ with Amazon, because it is a proper noun that is well known by the readers. Also, we will use ‘the’ with the mentioned special quality about the river being the longest in the world. Hence, it is the correct option.
b. No article, the- We cannot talk about ‘Amazon river’ without a definite article, as it is proper noun. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
c. No article, no article- The given option is grammatically inaccurate. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
d. The, no article- We need to use ‘the’ in the second blank, because we are talking about a superlative quality of the river. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
The correct answer is Option ‘a’.

Note: We use the definite article ‘the’ with superlative degrees of comparison to indicate a particular quality of the noun.