Question

Fill in the blanks with appropriate articles with the help of the hint in the brackets:
Tim lives in _____ small village in _____ country. (We are referring to a specific country here)
A. a:a
B. the:the
C. a:the
D. the:a

Answer 1

Hint: There are three articles in English language. A, An, The. Articles A and An are indefinite articles whereas the article ‘the’ is definite articles. It is used to refer to a particular entity. Example: The girl in the red dress. We are referring to a particular girl here who is wearing a red dress. The question refers that we are referring to a specific country here. Therefore, we will use the article ‘the’ for the country.

Complete answer:
Let us analyse each option individually in detail to figure out the correct answer with the help of the above stated hint.

a:a : The articles used in this option are both ‘a’. As per hint we require the article in the second blank to be ‘the’. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

the:the: The articles used in this option are ‘the’. In the first blank, we are referring to a small village in general. Therefore we don’t require the definite article ‘the’ here. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

a:the: The articles used in this option are a and the. By implying this option, the sentence becomes “Tim lives in a small village in the country”. This fulfils the motive here as the noun small village is in general and the noun country is definite. Therefore, this is the correct option.

the:a : The articles used in this option are ‘a’ and ‘the’. As per hint we require the article in the second blank to be ‘the’. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

Hence, the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: The articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ are indefinite nouns and are used before non specific nouns whose identity is not known. Example: A man in the train. The article ‘an’ is used before the nouns which start with vowels (a,e,i,o,u). Example: An apple a day, keeps the doctor away. The use of the article ‘the’ has been specified in the hint.