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3rd Grade Articles (A, An, The) Worksheets

Articles are the little words a, an, and the. By 3rd grade, students handle the tricky cases where the sound and the spelling disagree: an hour (silent h), a unicorn (a y-sound). The rule was never about letters; it's about the sound your mouth makes next.

Free printable PDF, aligned to Common Core L.1.1.h. One skill per page, answer key on page two.

Every sheet is one of a kind and prints with a version code, so you can reprint the exact same one later. New version every click.

A sample 3rd grade sheet. Yours will have different sentences. Click it to print your own.

The kind of sentences you'll get

Circle the letter of the article that fits the sentence.

  1. Rosa strummed ______ ukulele on the porch. an · a

    Answer: a

  2. We planted ______ oak sapling in the yard. an · a
  3. Kenji plays ______ drum in the school band. an · a

Every print draws a fresh mix of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different sheet.

What's on each sheet

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Introduce the disagreement cases deliberately: hour, honest, unicorn, one-way, university. Say each aloud and ask what sound it starts with, not what letter. Students who learned "an before vowels" as a letter rule will miss these, and the fix is one good conversation about sounds plus a worksheet or two of practice.

Watch for: It's the sound that decides, not the letter. We say an hour because hour starts with a vowel sound (like our), and a unicorn because unicorn starts with a y-sound. The works for anything specific, but a and an only go with one of something you could count.

Common questions about articles (a, an, the)

Is it "a hour" or "an hour"?
An hour. The h in hour is silent, so the word starts with a vowel sound, and the sound is what decides. The same logic flips for unicorn: it starts with the letter u but the sound "yoo," so it takes a. Third grade is the right time for these.
What about the word "the"?
The points to something specific: the red bike means one particular bike, while a bike means any bike. Most of our items practice a versus an because that's where the mistakes happen, but a few ask students to notice when only the fits.

Related worksheets

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Aligned to Common Core L.1.1.h. Reviewed by the One More Sheet curriculum team. Content version 68, updated July 2026.