Reading and Writing · 11 · Grammar Foundations
Articles
Notes
Key points
- a / an: any one. the: a specific one the reader already knows.
- a before a consonant sound, an before a vowel sound: a university, an hour.
- General plurals take no article: “Bees pollinate crops.”
- Rarely tested alone. Where it matters: a bare title before a name takes no comma.
Rules
Choose a/an by sound, not spelling.
She earned an honorary degree from a university.
She earned a honorary degree from an university.
No comma between a title and the name it introduces.
Biologist Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring.
Biologist, Rachel Carson, wrote Silent Spring.
Common traps
- “an university” — the word starts with a “yoo” sound, so it's “a”.
- Adding commas around a name that follows a title like “author” or “physicist”.
SAT tip
Title + name with no article in front (“physicist Lise Meitner”) is one unit: the SAT wants no punctuation inside it.
Test yourself
10 official SAT questions on Articles, easiest first.