Mixed Articles Exercise 5: A, An, The or No Article
B1–B2 · IntermediateReview how article choices depend on the meaning of a sentence. This mixed practice exercise covers a, an, the, and no article in everyday patterns and familiar expressions.
Choose the correct (and most natural-sounding) response to complete each sentence.
1.I moved to __________ USA when I was 15 years old.
Correct answer: the — country names that are plural or abbreviated take the (the USA, the UK, the Netherlands).
2.I can spell as well as __________ most students.
Correct answer: the — the most here means "the majority of"; it refers to a specific group.
3.He is __________ most famous actor I know.
Correct answer: the — superlatives always take the.
4.Hurry up. We don't have __________ lot of time.
Correct answer: a — a lot of is a fixed expression; a is part of it.
5.I live around here. = I live in __________ neighborhood.
Correct answer: the — the context makes the neighborhood specific and mutually understood.
6.I don't know at all. = I don't have __________ clue.
Correct answer: a — not have a clue is an idiom meaning to have no idea at all.
7.I have __________ idea!
Correct answer: an — idea starts with a vowel sound, so it takes an.
8.__________ tea in my cup is too hot to drink.
Correct answer: The — the phrase "in my cup" identifies which tea specifically, so it takes the.
9.The US president lives in __________ White House.
Correct answer: the — unique, well-known buildings take the (the White House, the Eiffel Tower).
10.My parents live in __________ white house.
Correct answer: a — lowercase white house is just a house that is white — one of many, so a.
Finished this series? Try Articles with Idioms – Exercise 1 →
Did you know?
"The" didn't always exist as its own word.
Old English didn't have a true definite article the way modern English does. Instead, it used demonstrative pronouns roughly meaning "that" or "this" (se, seo, þæt, depending on the noun's gender) to point to specific things. Over the course of the Middle English period, these demonstratives gradually wore down and merged into a single, gender-neutral, unchanging word: the.
That history is why "the" behaves the way it does today: it's grammatically simple (it never changes form, unlike German's der/die/das) but semantically it still does the same core job it always did, pointing to something specific that the listener can identify.
"A" and "an" have a separate history: they both come from the Old English word for "one" (an), which is also why the indefinite article and the number "one" still sound related in English.
Old English didn't have a true definite article the way modern English does. Instead, it used demonstrative pronouns roughly meaning "that" or "this" (se, seo, þæt, depending on the noun's gender) to point to specific things. Over the course of the Middle English period, these demonstratives gradually wore down and merged into a single, gender-neutral, unchanging word: the.
That history is why "the" behaves the way it does today: it's grammatically simple (it never changes form, unlike German's der/die/das) but semantically it still does the same core job it always did, pointing to something specific that the listener can identify.
"A" and "an" have a separate history: they both come from the Old English word for "one" (an), which is also why the indefinite article and the number "one" still sound related in English.
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