A/an article exercises with answers: 15 IELTS sentences and a free trainer

2026-10-08 · 5 min read

The rules for a/an take ten minutes to read, and the article still goes missing: your first language has no articles, so your hand does not write them. Only practice fixes that — lots of short sentences, checked straight away, with a line on why. Below are 15 sentences covering every section of The indefinite article a/an in IELTS: every rule you need for the exam: put a, an or nothing in each gap. Answers with explanations come after the exercise. The full set of 70 gaps is in the free trainer.

The Tilmashq trainer: sentences by section, with a, an and ∅ at the bottom; some gaps already filled — Fill the gaps by dragging or tapping; the counter and the Check button are at the bottom.

The answers window: a wrong article struck through in red, the right one in green, an explanation below — After the check: a wrong answer is struck through, with the right one next to it and a line on why.

How to do it

Each gap takes a, an or ∅ (no article). The never fits here, so you only choose from three.
Don't guess: ask the three questions from the article — is it countable? singular? is there already another determiner (my, every, the)?
Then check the sound of the next word: the sound decides a or an, not the letter.
Write your answers down, then compare. Group your mistakes by section: they usually cluster in one or two.

The exercise: 15 sentences

It is ___ good idea to start early.
___ recent study found that students sleep less than before.
My father is ___ engineer and my mother is ___ doctor.
In 2020 he was elected ___ president of the club.
It was such ___ long day that I fell asleep at nine.
What ___ nice weather we are having!
It takes half ___ hour to get there.
I go to the gym three times ___ week.
There was ___ sharp rise in sales in 2015.
Unemployment rose by ___ 5% in 2010.
She studies at ___ university in Tashkent.
She has ___ MBA from ___ US university.
Can you give me ___ advice about the exam?
I found ___ job, but my brother still can't find ___ work.
___ few people use this app, so it will probably close.

Answers and why

a good idea. Idea is singular and countable, so it cannot stand bare. An adjective does not cancel the article; it goes between the article and the noun.
A recent study. The study appears for the first time and the reader does not know which one. Come back to it and it becomes the study.
an engineer, a doctor. A job after is needs an article. Engineer starts with a vowel sound, so an.
∅ president. A post only one person can hold, after elected or became, takes no article.
such a long day. The pattern is such a + adjective + noun; a such is wrong.
What ∅ nice weather! Weather is uncountable. What a nice weather is one of the most common Speaking mistakes.
half an hour. A fixed phrase; the h in hour is silent and the sound is a vowel, so an.
three times a week. «Per week», «per hour», «per kilo» are all a: twice a day, $5 a kilo. Not in a week.
a sharp rise. A rise as a noun, mentioned for the first time. There was sharp rise is the most common Writing Task 1 mistake.
by ∅ 5%. No article after by with a number. But when the number comes before a noun: a 5% rise.
a university. University starts with a «you» sound — a consonant sound — so a, even though the letter is a vowel.
an MBA, a US university. Abbreviations are read letter by letter: «em-bee-ay» starts with a vowel sound — an; «you-ess» starts with «you» — a.
∅ advice. Advice is uncountable: some advice or a piece of advice, never an advice.
a job, ∅ work. Job is countable; work meaning employment is not. One pair, two rules.
∅ Few people. Few without a means «hardly anyone», which is why the app will close. A few would mean «some, and that is good».

How did you do? There are 18 gaps: 16–18 — your articles are fine, use the trainer for speed; 12–15 — reread the sections where you slipped; under 12 — read the rules article first, then come back.

The free trainer: 55 more gaps

The same 13 sections, 4–5 sentences each, 70 gaps on one page. You drag a, an and ∅ into the gaps (on a phone, with a finger or by tapping the word and then the gap). «Check» shows your result: a wrong answer is struck through, with the right one next to it and a line on why. No sign-up, no timer and no points — do it as many times as you like.

Open the article trainer

The trainer only checks your choice in a ready-made sentence. In your own writing you place the article yourself, so after the trainer it pays to do an «articles only» pass over your own essay — how to do it is in The indefinite article a/an in IELTS: every rule you need for the exam. In Tilmashq, Writing Task 2 essays and Writing Task 1 answers are graded on all four criteria, including Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and missing articles show up in the feedback with corrections. The grader is an AI and is, on average, stricter than an examiner.