Question

: Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
_____ price of sugar has risen by ____ penny ___ kilo.
a- The/ a /a
b- No article/ a /a
c- The/ no article/a
d- No article/ no article/a

Answer 1

Hint: Articles, ‘a, an and the’ are used with nouns to form appropriate noun phrases. We use articles to identify whether the mentioned noun is specific or generalized.

Complete answer:
 As given in the hint, articles are determiners that help in describing a noun.
Let’s look at the two types of articles-
Indefinite articles- ‘A and an’ are known as indefinite articles. They are used with generalized nouns. We use ‘a’ with singular nouns that begin with a consonant sound, whereas ‘an’ is used with singular nouns that begin with a vowel sound. Example- An apple, an umbrella, a ball, a bat, etc.
Definite article- ‘The’ is a definite article. It is used with particular nouns and proper nouns. We use ‘the’ with both singular and plural nouns. Example- The Himalayas, The mountains, the book, etc.
In the given question- We can conclude that the price of sugar has risen by a penny a kilo. Here, we have used ‘the’ to indicate a specified noun and ‘a’ to represent generalized nouns.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘The/ a /a’ is the correct option because we use ‘the’ to indicate specified nouns and ‘a’ to indicate generalized nouns.
Option b- ‘No article/ a /a’ is an incorrect option because we need to use ‘the’ to indicate the particular noun, ‘price of sugar’.
Option c- ‘The/ no article/a’ is an incorrect option because we need a determiner to modify the noun, ‘penny’.
Option d- ‘No article/ no article/a’ is an incorrect option because we need determiners to modify the nouns, ‘sugar’ and ‘penny’. The correct answer is Option ‘a’.

Note:
Articles act as adjectives because they help in describing nouns. Keep in mind, we cannot use indefinite articles to describe plural nouns.