Articles Worksheet for Class 2
a, an and the: three printable sheets with answer keys
Articles are three small words: a, an and the. They sit in front of a naming word. The choice between a and an is decided by the sound the next word starts with, not by the letter, which is why we say an hour but a university. The is used when both people know which one is meant, or when there is only one of it: the sun, the moon.
There are three printable sheets below. Sheet 1 is a and an with everyday words. Sheet 2 adds the and mixes all three. Sheet 3 is the hard one: the words where the sound and the letter disagree, plus a short passage with the articles taken out. All three answer keys are on this page.
No sign-up. Answer keys are further down this page.
- a or an is a sound rule, not a spelling rule. An hour, an honest boy, a university, a uniform. The letter at the front of the word is not the thing to look at.
- Use the when you both already know which one is meant, when there is only one of it (the sun, the moon), or when you are pointing at a particular one.
- Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and most Indian languages have no articles at all, so a child has nothing in their first language to copy. Dropped articles are a pattern, not a weakness.
- The fastest correction is to say the sentence aloud. A child who hears a apple fixes it themselves. A child who only reads it silently often does not notice.
a or an is decided by sound, not by letter
Almost every child is first taught this: use an before a, e, i, o, u, and use a before all the other letters. It works most of the time, which is exactly why it is so hard to unlearn later. It is not the real rule, and Class 2 is where the exceptions start turning up in the textbook.
Here is the real one, in a sentence a seven year old can hold on to. Say the next word out loud. If the first sound you hear is a vowel sound, use an. If it is any other sound, use a.
A vowel sound is the sound at the start of apple, egg, ink, orange and up. Notice that we are talking about a sound your child can hear, not a letter they can see. Those two usually agree, and this whole topic is about the handful of times they do not.
| Word | Letter it starts with | Sound you actually hear first | Correct |
|---|---|---|---|
| hour | h, not a vowel letter | "ow", a vowel sound, because the h is silent | an hour |
| honest | h | "o", the h is silent here too | an honest boy |
| house | h | "h", this one you can hear | a house |
| university | u, a vowel letter | "yoo", which behaves like a consonant | a university |
| uniform | u | "yoo" again | a uniform |
| umbrella | u | "u" as in up, a real vowel sound | an umbrella |
| MLA | M | "em", we say the letter name | an MLA |
| man | m | "m" | a man |
Look at the last two rows together. Same letter at the front, opposite answers, and the only thing that separates them is what your mouth does when you say the word. That pair is worth showing your child directly, because it settles the argument better than any explanation.
- Silent h words take an: an hour, an honest man, an honourable person. There are only a few of these, so they can simply be learned.
- Words that start with a "yoo" sound take a: a university, a uniform, a unicorn, a useful bag, a union.
- Letters we say by name take whatever their name starts with: an MLA, an SMS, an X-ray, but a BA degree and a TV.
The two second test: ask your child to say just the naming word aloud, on its own, before they write anything. Hour. Uniform. The ear gets it right far more often than the eye does, and it costs nothing to check.
When to use the
A and an mean any one of something. The means a particular one, the one we both have in mind. That is the whole difference, and Class 2 children pick it up quickly once they hear it as a question rather than a rule: do we both know which one?
There are three situations where the answer is yes, and between them they cover nearly everything a Class 2 sentence will throw up.
It has already been named once
The first time something appears it is new, so it takes a or an. The second time, we both know which one, so it takes the. "Ravi saw a dog near the gate. The dog was black." Your child can hear the handover if you read both sentences aloud in one breath.
There is only one of it
The sun, the moon, the sky, the earth. There is no second one to confuse it with, so it never needs introducing. This is the easiest of the three and the one worth teaching first, because it gives your child a set of words that always take the.
You are pointing at a particular one
"Please shut the door." There may be four doors in the house, but you are standing next to one of them and you are both looking at it. Anything you could point your finger at while you say it usually takes the.
Put side by side, the pairs make the difference obvious even without the rule:
- I want a pen. (any pen will do) → I want the pen. (that one, on the table)
- Meera read a book. (we do not know which) → Meera read the book. (the one we talked about)
- Look at a moon. (wrong, there is only one) → Look at the moon.
A game that takes one minute: point at things in the room and ask your child to name them with the right article. The fan on the ceiling is the fan, because there is one. A pencil from a full box is a pencil. They will argue about the borderline ones, and the arguing is the learning.
Why articles are harder for Indian children
If your child keeps leaving out a, an and the, or drops them in where they do not belong, there is a plain reason for it and it is not carelessness.
Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and most Indian languages have no articles at all. Not a different set of them, none. So when your child learns naming words or doing words in English, there is something in their first language to lean on. With articles there is nothing to lean on. They are being asked to add a word that carries no meaning they can point at, in a place their ear has never expected one.
That produces two habits, and once you can name them you will hear them everywhere.
| What children say | What English needs | What is going on |
|---|---|---|
| He is doctor. | He is a doctor. | Article dropped. The sentence already sounds finished, because the home-language version of it is |
| I have pen. | I have a pen. | Article dropped in front of a naming word |
| She is going to the school. | She is going to school. | Article added where English leaves it out |
| I like the mangoes. | I like mangoes. | Article added when we mean mangoes in general |
| Give me a water. | Give me some water. | a and an only work with things you can count |
Notice that I am going to school is perfectly correct English with no article at all, while He is doctor is not. That inconsistency is real, and it is the part children find genuinely confusing rather than merely new. A few of these simply have to be met often enough to sound normal.
- Go to school, go to bed, go home. No article. These are habits of English, learned by hearing them.
- Naming a job or a role always takes one: she is a teacher, he is an artist, my aunt is a doctor.
- Things you cannot count take no a or an: water, milk, rice, money. You can have some water, never a water.
What actually fixes it: hearing the sentence, not being told the rule again. When your child says "he is doctor", repeat it back warmly as "yes, he is a doctor" and carry on talking. No correction voice, no pause. Children pick articles up the way they picked up everything else at home, by hearing the full version enough times.
Four mistakes Class 2 children make with a, an and the
Wrong answers on an articles sheet are not random. They fall into four groups, each with a different fix, so it is worth seeing which one your child is actually making before printing another sheet.
- Going by the letter instead of the sound. This produces a hour and an university. The child has applied the rule they were taught perfectly, and the rule was the simplified one. Do not mark this as carelessness, it is a rule upgrade.
- Looking at the wrong word. In an old bag, the article listens to old, not to bag. Children look past the describing word to the naming word and write a old bag.
- Using a or an with more than one. A books, an apples. A and an both mean one, so they can never sit in front of a plural.
- Leaving the article out completely. The most common one of all in Indian classrooms, and the one covered in the section above. It shows up more in speech than on paper, because a worksheet puts a blank line there to remind them.
| What your child writes | Correct | Why |
|---|---|---|
| a hour | an hour | The h is silent, so the first sound is a vowel sound |
| an university | a university | It starts with a "yoo" sound, which behaves like a consonant |
| a old bag | an old bag | The article listens to old, the word right next to it |
| a books | a book, or some books | a means one, so it cannot go with a plural |
| He is teacher. | He is a teacher. | Naming a job always needs an article in English |
The correction that sticks: do not give the answer. Ask your child to read their own sentence aloud, slowly. A hour. Most children stop halfway through and fix it before you say anything, because their mouth objects before their brain does. A child who catches their own mistake rarely repeats it.
Answer keys for all three worksheets
Every answer for all three sheets is below, in the order the exercises appear, with the reason in brackets wherever the sound and the letter disagree. Mark it sitting next to your child, and ask about the wrong ones before telling them anything.
Worksheet 1
Exercise 1: Write a or an in front of each word
- a cat
- an egg
- a bus
- an apple
- an owl
- a pen
Exercise 2: Write a or an in each blank
- Ravi ate a mango and a banana after school.
- Meera found an old key under the big brown box. (the article listens to old, not to key)
- Amit saw an elephant at the zoo last Sunday.
- Anu drew a tree and a small house in class. (the second one listens to small)
Exercise 3: Circle the correct word
- an orange
- a desk
- an ink pot (it listens to ink, the word right after it)
- a train
Exercise 4: Sort the words into the right box
- Words that take a: chair, dog, cup, star
- Words that take an: ant, insect, ox, egg
Exercise 5: Write your own naming word after each article
Answers will vary, and that is the point. Anything works as long as the sound matches: after a, a word starting with a consonant sound (bag, dog, house), and after an, a word starting with a vowel sound (apple, egg, owl). Ask your child to read each one back to you, because that is where a wrong pairing gives itself away.
Worksheet 2
Exercise 1: Write a, an or the in each blank
- Ravi saw a cat sitting near the school gate. The cat was black. (new the first time, known the second time)
- Nita picked an apple from the tall tree. The apple was sweet.
- Last night we looked up at the moon and the stars.
- Arjun read a book about the sun in class. (there is only one sun)
Exercise 2: Circle the correct article
- Sara has an umbrella. (umbrella starts with the "u" sound in up, a vowel sound)
- Amit is a good boy. (it listens to good)
- Please shut the door. (we both know which door)
- An ant walked across my hand.
Exercise 3: Cross out the wrong article and write the correct one
- Meera ate an egg for her breakfast today.
- Dev saw a bus near the big park.
- We sat under a tree and looked at the sky. (there is only one sky)
- Anu has a new pen in her bag. (it listens to new)
Exercise 4: Tick the sentence that is correct
- I want an apple.
- She is a nurse.
- Look at the moon.
- He is a doctor. (naming a job always needs an article)
Exercise 5: Write a, an or the
- Amit bought a pen and a pencil from the shop.
- The sky turned dark before the rain came down. (there is only one sky)
- Kiran gave me an orange from the big basket. (that basket, the one we can see)
Worksheet 3
Exercise 1: Say each word aloud, then write a or an
- an hour (because hour starts with an "ow" sound, the h is silent)
- a university (because it starts with a "yoo" sound, which behaves like a consonant)
- an honest man (because the h in honest is silent, so the first sound is "o")
- a uniform (because it starts with a "yoo" sound, same as university)
- an umbrella (because it starts with the "u" sound in up, a real vowel sound)
- a house (because you can hear the h in house, unlike in hour)
Exercise 2: Tick the sentence that is correct
- We waited an hour. (silent h, so the first sound is a vowel sound)
- My brother wears a uniform. ("yoo" sound)
- Ravi is an honest boy. (silent h again)
- She goes to a university. ("yoo" sound)
Exercise 3: Write a or an in each blank
- Dev waited an hour for the bus this morning. (because hour starts with an "ow" sound)
- My uncle works at a university in Pune.
- Meera wore a blue uniform to school today. (it listens to blue here, and blue takes a anyway)
- Arjun is an honest boy who always tells the truth.
Exercise 4: Write a, an or the in the passage
- Last Sunday Nita found an old box near her gate. (it listens to old)
- Inside it she saw a key and a ten-rupee note.
- Nita is an honest girl. (because the h in honest is silent)
- She waited for an hour and then gave the box to her class teacher. (an hour for the silent h, and the box because that box was named in the first line)
Exercise 5: These pairs look alike but sound different
- an hour, but a horse (the h in hour is silent, the h in horse is not)
- a uniform, but an umbrella (uniform starts with a "yoo" sound, umbrella starts with the "u" sound in up)
This is the exercise to look at first. A child who gets both pairs right has stopped reading the letter and started listening to the word, which is the whole point of the sheet.
A wrong answer here is not one thing, and the sheet it appears on tells you which thing it is. This is the quickest way to read the score.
| Where the mistakes are | What it usually means | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet 1, ordinary words | The basic vowel sound idea has not landed yet | Go back to saying words aloud before writing anything |
| Sheet 2, the questions with the | They can do a and an, but not "do we both know which one" | Read the two-sentence pairs aloud together |
| Sheet 3 only | Everything is fine, they have simply met the exceptions | Learn hour, honest, university and uniform as a short list |
| Blanks left empty everywhere | Often a reading problem, not a grammar one | Ask them to read the sentence aloud and listen to how it goes |
- Mark sheet 1 and sheet 2 on different days. A rule your child can still use on Friday is one they have learned, not one they have just copied.
- Sheet 3 is meant to be harder. Six out of ten on it is a good score for a Class 2 child, so say so before they see the marks.
Two minutes that are worth more than the marking: once a sheet is finished, point at any three sentences and ask your child to read them aloud, articles included. Choosing an on paper and saying an out loud are different skills, and only one of them is what people hear.
a or an is a sound rule. Paper cannot hear your child.
This topic is the clearest case there is of a worksheet marking half the job. Your child can write an hour in a blank and still say "a hour" every time they speak, because the blank was a puzzle and the sentence is a habit. The page has no way of telling you which one you have.
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Frequently asked questions
Articles are the three small words a, an and the. They sit in front of a naming word and tell us whether we mean any one of something or one particular one. A cat means any cat. The cat means that one cat we already know about. Class 2 children learn to choose the right article and to hear when one is missing.
Listen to the first sound of the word that comes next, not the first letter. If it starts with a vowel sound, the kind you hear in apple, egg, ink, orange or up, use an. For every other sound use a. An egg, an owl, a bus, a pen. Saying the sentence aloud settles it faster than any rule ever will.
Because the h in hour is silent. Say the word aloud and the first sound you hear is ow, which is a vowel sound, so it takes an. The same thing happens with honest and honestly. This is why the rule is about sound and not spelling. Your child’s ear already knows the answer, even when the letter on the page disagrees.
University begins with the letter u, but the sound you hear first is yoo, and yoo behaves like a consonant. So it takes a. The same goes for a uniform, a unicorn and a useful bag. Ask your child to say the word slowly before choosing. Their ear will pick the right article long before the spelling rule does.
Use the when you both know which one you mean. That happens in three ways. The thing has already been named once: Meera saw a dog, and the dog was small. There is only one of it: the sun, the moon, the sky. Or you are pointing at a particular one: the pen in my hand, the red bag.
Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and most Indian languages have no articles at all, so there is nothing in your child’s first language to copy. He is doctor sounds complete to them because the matching sentence at home is complete without an article. It is a pattern, not a weakness, and it clears up with practice at hearing the missing word.