Select the appropriate article to complete the following sentence. Choose the…

Concept: An article is chosen by the kind of reference a noun carries, not by the noun alone. English uses "a" or "an" for one unspecified member of a countable class, uses "the" when the listener can already pin the noun down, and uses no article at all — the zero article — when a plural or uncountable noun names its whole class in general terms.

Application: Test the blank in "The Ganga is considered holy by ____ Indians."

1. "Indians" is a plural countable noun, so a singular indefinite article cannot sit in front of it — "a Indians" and "an Indians" are ungrammatical.

2. Nothing in the sentence narrows the reference: there is no earlier mention, no defining relative clause, no qualifying phrase that picks out a particular set of people. So a definite reading has nothing to attach to.

3. The noun names the nationality as a whole class holding a shared cultural view. That is the generic, class-naming use, and English leaves such a plural noun bare.

Result: the blank stays empty — "The Ganga is considered holy by Indians."

Cross-check — contrast the alternatives by value:

• "a" / "an": each marks exactly one countable item, which clashes with the plural noun "Indians".

• "the": "the Indians" signals a specific, already-identified set, as in "the Indians who live on the riverbank" — it narrows a statement that is meant to be general.

• zero article: the bare plural keeps the reference generic, which is the reading the sentence intends.

Second check by substitution: put another general plural in the same frame — "Rice is eaten by ____ Indians", "Football is followed by ____ Brazilians". Natural English leaves the slot empty in each case, confirming the same rule.