Grammar Quiz -III (Articles)

Answers to the quiz on articles

1) We need a Daniel to judge our case. [ A proper noun that is name of an individual when takes a article it would always have an implied meaning.In this sentence it refers to the biblical character Daniel a wise person.If the above sentence was written as 'We need Daniel to judge our case.' it would refer to a person named Daniel.]So the answer for this question is both 1 and 4

2) The Bacchans have promised to visit me this weekend. [ Proper nouns those are names of individuals being generic never take the article 'the'.But we do use a 'the' to refer to a proper noun in a specific case.In this sentence we are saying from all the Bacchan families this particular Bacchan family has promised to visit me]

3) He has completed his graduation from the University of Mumbai.[ Many a time country names are eponyms;since individual names do not take an article country names that are eponyms or seem to be eponyms do not take any article.So is the case with city names,continent names,state,district names etc]

4) Save the Earth;Save life !!!!! [ earth would mean soil and the Earth refers to our planet.Since here we refer to our planet the above sentence would take the article 'the']*

5) I have already spent the few rupees left with me.[ few means not many,a few means some and the few means zero and hence the answer in the above case]

Note : * planet names do not take an article,the reason being they are all names of Roman gods and goddesses.Since individuals are named after gods and goddesses,planet names derived from the same do not take any article

The only area in the usage of Proper nouns that is normally tested in entrance exams is their use with articles.
There are two types of articles : Definite (the) and Indefinite (a,an).A noun which is specific will always take the article 'the' and the one which is generic will take either 'a' or 'an' depending on the pronunciation of the word.

Many modern grammarians feel that articles should be included as one of the parts of speech.Hence according to modern English grammar there are nine parts of speech.