Example of usage of 'A'

Question

Hi all,
I have doubt regarding usage of 'A'(i.e. When to use 'a' and not). I came across that it comes before word pronounced with 'h'

so I took two question and solved it, Questions are below,

1) "Why are you driving so fast?"
"I'm_______"
a) Must be hurry b) In hurry c) In a hurry d) hurrying

2) Sorry to be late. I was delayed by _____.
a) a heavy traffic b) heavy traffic c) some heavy traffic d) traffic being heavy

For the first one as per the rule it should come c. Similarly for the second question I did but answer is 'b' instead of 'c'.
Can any one explain me how it came.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Multiple choice tests are tricky. American students have been tearing their hair out over them for decades. What's tricky about them is that you have to pick the one best answer out of those given. But several of the answers might seem reasonable, yet you can only pick one answer, the best one for the situation.

1.) a.) would give: I am must be hurry., which is ungrammatical. b.) would give: I am in hurry., which is also ungrammatical. That leaves c.) and d.) as possible answers, and both are feasible. But c.) is the best answer, in the sense that this is the answer that would be heard most frequently. d.) is grammatical, but it would be less frequently heard in everyday conversation. So the answer to 1.) is c.).

2.) a.) gives: I was delayed by a heavy traffic., which is ungrammatical. This leaves b.), c.), and d.) as possible answers, and all are feasible. However, b.) is the best answer out of the three, in the sense that it would be the one that would be heard most frequently. c.) and d.) are grammatical, but they would not be as frequently heard as b.), so b.) is the best answer for 2.).

As to why "in a hurry" is correct for 1.), and "a heavy traffic" in 2.) is ungrammatical, there is no easy answer to this. Native English speakers know all of this kind of thing by instinct, having grown up with the language. All I can say is that that is just the way things are said in English, and non-native speakers have to learn such things by experience, which is a daunting task.

Rover_KE · Answer

1.. c is the best answer. (d is also grammatically correct.)

2. b and c are both correct answers. In fact, like you, I prefer b.

Ignore the bit about a coming before words beginning with h. It's a red herring and misleading.

Rover

Example of usage of 'A'

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