Question

Fill in the blank with the correct or no article:
The secretary and ____________ treasurer are absent.
(Mr. Ray is the secretary and his wife is the treasurer)
a) A
b) An
c) The
d) No article

Answer 1

Hint: The English language has two articles: ‘the’ and ‘a/ an’. The definite article ‘the’ is used to refer to specific or particular nouns and the indefinite article ‘a/ an’ is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns.

Complete answer:
An article is like an adjective and like adjectives, articles modify the noun. The English language has two articles: ‘the’ and ‘a/ an’. The definite article ‘the’ is used to refer to specific or particular nouns and the indefinite article ‘a/ an’ is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns.
Now, in the above question, the information given in the adjoining bracket states that the positions of 'Secretary' and 'Treasurer' are held by two different people, hence we need to add an article before each noun to modify it as we are talking about two people and not one.
So, as we know that with a unique or specific noun we use ‘the’, and with a general noun we use ‘a/ an’. Now, let us look into the options that are presented to us –
Option (a) – ‘a’ is an indefinite article used to modify general or non – specific nouns (used before words that start with a consonants sound).
Option (b) – ‘an’ is also an indefinite article used to modify general or non – specific nouns (used before words that start with a vowel sound).
Option (c) – ‘the’ is used with specific nouns like – the Alps, the Himalayas, the Pacific Ocean, the moon, the earth, etc.
Option (d) – no article means the use of neither type of article.
Since the position of treasurer is a unique or specific position we will use the definite article ‘the’ (reason explained above). Therefore, the correct solution for the above question is option (c).
Now the sentence completes as – “The secretary and the treasurer are absent”.

Note:
In the above question, we can see that the position of secretary and treasurer are specifically mentioned and both of the positions are held by two different people.