Grammar Worksheets: Articles (A, An, The) - Free Printable

Let’s go through each word one by one and decide whether to use “a” or “an”.

Remember:
→ Use “an” before words that start with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u).
→ Use “a” before words that start with a consonant sound.

But be careful — it’s about the *sound*, not just the letter! For example, “UFO” starts with the letter U, but it sounds like “you”, which is a consonant sound → so we say “a UFO”.

Let’s check each:

1. UFO → sounds like “you-fo” → starts with ‘y’ sound → consonant → a UFO

2. iceberg → starts with ‘i’ → vowel sound → an iceberg

3. cake → starts with ‘c’ → consonant sound → a cake

4. dress → starts with ‘d’ → consonant sound → a dress

5. engineer → starts with ‘e’ → vowel sound → an engineer

6. apple → starts with ‘a’ → vowel sound → an apple

7. bed → starts with ‘b’ → consonant sound → a bed

8. sheep → starts with ‘sh’ → consonant sound → a sheep

9. orange → starts with ‘o’ → vowel sound → an orange

10. flower → starts with ‘f’ → consonant sound → a flower

11. hand → starts with ‘h’ → consonant sound → a hand

12. tractor → starts with ‘t’ → consonant sound → a tractor

Double-checking tricky ones:
- “UFO” = /juː/ → “you” → consonant → ✔ a
- “engineer” = /en/ → vowel → ✔ an
- “orange” = /ɒr/ or /ɔːr/ → vowel → ✔ an

All good!

Final Answer:
a UFO
an iceberg
a cake
a dress
an engineer
an apple
a bed
a sheep
an orange
a flower
a hand
a tractor