Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
It's ______ pity that my birthday comes only once ______ year.

• A. a/no article
• B. the/a
• C. a/a
• D. an/the
• E. no article/a

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

a/a

Option (C) is the correct answer.

EXPLANATION:

There are two types of articles:

DEFINITE ARTICLE (THE) : Article 'the' is used to refer to a DEFINITE thing or person.

INDEFINITE ARTICLE(A/AN): Article 'a/an' is used to refer to a thing or person in general. For instance: man, door etc.

Article 'a' is used with consonant sounds whereas article 'an' is used with vowel sounds.

In the first blank, article "a" will be used because here pity is being used in the general sense ( a cause for regret or disappointments ) and it is considered to be countable ( general) noun.

In the second blank, article "a" will be used because 'year' is a common noun and has a consonant sound.