৪৭তম BCS — Articles & Determiners

১টি প্রশ্ন — 'an FBI analyst'।

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প্রশ্ন ৯২: 'She works as ___ FBI analyst'

→ an ✓

Rule: 'a' vs 'an' = SOUND not letter

Sound	Article
Vowel sound	an
Consonant sound	a

Tricky Cases

Word	Article	Reason
FBI	an	starts with /e/ vowel sound (eff-bee-eye)
MBA, MP, MA	an	/e/ sound
X-ray	an	/e/ sound
honest, hour, heir	an	silent 'h'
historic	a/an (debated)	h pronounced
university, European	a	/j/ consonant sound
one (number)	a one-eyed	/w/ sound
useful, unicorn	a	/j/ sound
umbrella, uncle	an	/ʌ/ vowel

Articles — 3 main

Article	Use
a/an	indefinite (not specific)
the	definite (specific)
zero article	no article needed

When to use 'the'

• Unique: the sun, the moon, the earth
• Specific: the book on the table
• Superlative: the best, the largest
• Ordinal: the first, the third
• Religious: the Quran, the Bible
• Mountains range: the Himalayas
• Rivers: the Padma, the Nile
• Seas: the Bay of Bengal
• Newspapers: the Daily Star
• Musical instrument: play the guitar
• Nationality (plural): the British

When NOT to use article

• Proper noun: India, Allah
• Game: play cricket
• Meal: have breakfast
• Material: gold, water
• Abstract: love, freedom
• Language: English (but: 'the English language')

Determiners

Type	Examples
Articles	a, an, the
Demonstratives	this, that, these, those
Possessives	my, your, his, our
Quantifiers	some, any, much, many, few
Numerals	one, two, first, second
Distributives	each, every, either, neither
Difference words	other, another

পরীক্ষার শর্টকাট

• 'an' before vowel sound (FBI, MBA, hour)
• 'a' before consonant sound (university, European)
• 'the' for specific/unique

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টপিকটি গভীরে শিখুন

Articles & Determiners — মূল লেকচার শিট — All rules, determiners, common traps।