An Exercise on Picking out Articles (A), (AN) and (THE)

Great question! Let me help explain why some articles are used in these sentences. 

1. "___ car parked outside belongs to my neighbor."

The correct article here is "The."

• Why "The"?
  • When we use "the", we’re talking about a specific thing that both the speaker and listener know about.
  • "The car" means it’s a particular car that you can see or are referring to directly.

2. "He wants to become ___ engineer."

The correct article here is "an."

• Why "An"?
  • We use "an" before words that begin with a vowel sound.
  • "Engineer" starts with a vowel sound (the "e" sound), so we use "an" before it.
  • "An engineer" refers to any engineer, not a specific one, which is why "an" is used.

Summary of Articles:

• "The": Use for something specific and already known to the speaker and listener.
• "A" or "An": Use for general things (not specific) and when mentioning things for the first time.
  • Use "a" for words that start with a consonant sound.
  • Use "an" for words that start with a vowel sound.

I hope that helps!