Raju will be back home (a) | in an year (b) | after his stay abroad. (c) | No error (d)

Correct — B, (b) in an year.

The fault is the article. The phrase should read ‘in a year’, not ‘in an year’.

The rule that decides between ‘a’ and ‘an’ is a rule about SOUND, not about spelling. ‘An’ goes before a word beginning with a vowel SOUND; ‘a’ goes before a word beginning with a consonant sound. ‘Year’ is spelt with the letter y, which is not a vowel letter at all, and it is pronounced with the consonant glide /j/ — the same sound that opens ‘yes’, ‘young’ and ‘yesterday’. A word beginning with that sound takes ‘a’. So: a year, a young man, a yellow shirt.

The pull towards ‘an’ comes from the eye rather than the ear. Candidates who have learnt the rule as ‘an before a, e, i, o, u’ sometimes extend it to y, because y is described in school as a half-vowel, and sometimes they simply hear the long ‘ee’ inside the word and let it govern the article. Neither survives the test that matters, which is to say the phrase aloud and listen to the first sound: ‘yeer’ opens with a consonant, so ‘a year’ it is.

Nothing else in the sentence needs changing. With that one correction the sentence reads ‘Raju will be back home in a year after his stay abroad’, which is good English throughout.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)Raju will be back home — There is no error in this part. ‘Home’ is being used as an adverb of place, and after verbs of motion or position an adverb takes no preposition: go home, come home, reach home, be back home. Writing ‘back to home’ would be the error, and it is a common one, which is probably why the segment is offered. The future ‘will be’ is also correct for a plan or expectation about a time ahead, and ‘back home’ is the ordinary idiom for returning to one’s own place. Note that ‘home’ behaves this way only as an adverb; as a noun it takes prepositions normally — at home, from his home, the way to his home.
• (c)after his stay abroad. — This part is correct too. ‘Abroad’, like ‘home’, ‘outside’, ‘upstairs’ and ‘overseas’, is an adverb meaning ‘in or to a foreign country’, and it needs no preposition before it: he went abroad, she has settled abroad, his stay abroad. The mistake the segment invites is ‘in abroad’ or ‘to abroad’, both of which are wrong for the same reason that ‘to home’ is wrong. ‘Stay’ as a noun followed by an adverb is perfectly regular, and ‘after’ correctly relates the return to the end of that stay. A candidate may also feel that the sentence gives two time markers, ‘in a year’ and ‘after his stay abroad’, but there is nothing ungrammatical in that: the second explains the first.
• (d)No error — This cannot be the answer, because the sentence does contain a fault — the article in segment (b). ‘No error’ is a real option in this block and it is right on several of the items, so it should never be dismissed out of hand; but it has to be earned by checking each segment and finding nothing, not chosen because nothing has jumped out. Here the fault is a single small word, and a single small word is exactly what a spotting-errors item is most often built on. The habit worth carrying into the examination hall is to read the sentence once for sense and then a second time slowly for articles, prepositions and verb endings, which are where these items hide.

The indefinite article is chosen by the SOUND that follows it, never by the letter.

‘An’ before a vowel sound. This includes words spelt with a silent h, because the first sound heard is the vowel after it: an hour, an honest officer, an honourable settlement, an heir. It also covers the letter names used in abbreviations that begin with a vowel sound when spoken — an MP (‘em-pee’), an MLA, an FIR, an SDM, an NGO, an X-ray, an RTI application.

‘A’ before a consonant sound. This includes several words that begin with a vowel LETTER but are pronounced with the consonant glide /j/: a university, a union, a uniform, a useful book, a European country, a unique case, a one-rupee note and a one-way street (where the ‘o’ is pronounced ‘wun’). It also covers abbreviations whose first letter is spoken with a consonant sound — a UN resolution, a UPSC notification, a UGC circular.

‘Year’ belongs firmly in the second group. Its initial sound is the same /j/ glide, so it takes ‘a’ every time: a year ago, a year’s salary, once in a year, a yearly return.

One further point, since the sentence uses it: ‘in’ plus a period of time looks forward to the end of that period. ‘He will be back in a year’ means a year from now. ‘Within a year’ would mean at some point before a year has passed, and ‘after a year’ would mean once a year has gone by. The three are not interchangeable, and examiners do build items on the difference.

Key facts

• The choice between ‘a’ and ‘an’ depends on the SOUND the following word begins with, not on the letter it is spelt with.
• ‘Year’ begins with the consonant glide /j/, the sound of ‘yes’, and therefore takes ‘a’ — a year, a yearly return.
• Silent-h words take ‘an’: an hour, an honest man, an honour, an heir. Words where the h is pronounced take ‘a’ — a hotel, a historic day, a house.
• Vowel letters pronounced ‘yoo’ take ‘a’: a university, a union, a uniform, a useful book, a European, a unique case.
• ‘One’ is pronounced ‘wun’, so it takes ‘a’ — a one-rupee note, a one-way street.
• Abbreviations follow the sound of the letter as spoken: an MP, an FIR, an NGO, an X-ray, but a UN resolution and a UPSC notification.
• ‘Home’ and ‘abroad’ used as adverbs take no preposition — go home, be back home, stay abroad, settle abroad.
• ‘In’ + a period of time points to the end of that period; ‘within’ means before it elapses and ‘after’ means once it has elapsed.

Common traps

• Applying the article rule to vowel LETTERS instead of vowel sounds. This single confusion produces ‘an year’, ‘an university’, ‘an one-rupee note’ and ‘a hour’.
• Treating the printed phrase as a misprint to be mentally corrected. In this block the sentence is supposed to contain a fault, and correcting it silently means answering a different question.
• Marking segment (a) for ‘back home’ on the belief that a preposition is missing. As an adverb, ‘home’ takes none.
• Marking segment (c) for ‘abroad’ for the same reason. ‘In abroad’ is the error; ‘abroad’ alone is correct.
• Choosing ‘No error’ because the sentence reads naturally at speed. Article faults are quiet and survive a fast reading.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  She has been working (a) | in an university abroad (b) | for the last three years. (c) | No error (d)

  • (a)She has been working
  • (b)in an university abroad
  • (c)for the last three years.
  • (d)No error

  Answer(b) in an university abroad — ‘university’ begins with the ‘yoo’ sound, which is a consonant sound, so the article must be ‘a university’. Part (a) correctly uses the present perfect continuous for an action still going on, and part (c) correctly uses ‘for’ with a length of time; ‘abroad’ needs no preposition of its own.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The officer submitted (a) | a FIR and an one-page note (b) | to the inspecting authority. (c) | No error (d)

  • (a)The officer submitted
  • (b)a FIR and an one-page note
  • (c)to the inspecting authority.
  • (d)No error

  Answer(b) a FIR and an one-page note — both articles are wrong, and they are wrong in opposite directions. ‘FIR’ is spoken ‘ef-eye-ar’, which opens with a vowel sound, so it needs ‘an FIR’; ‘one’ is spoken ‘wun’, which opens with a consonant sound, so it needs ‘a one-page note’. Parts (a) and (c) are correct as they stand.