With the names of countries that have developed from geographical regions there are often two possibilities, with and without definite article: Sudan or the Sudan, Yemen or the Yemen, Cameroon or the Cameroons. The tendency is to use the form without the definite article.
Names of cities, towns and villages: Moscow, Rome, Brighton, Hastings, Grasmere.
Note. the Hague.
Political and administrative regions of countries (states or provinces): California, Kashmir, Brittany.
He was at his home in Kent.
Names of bays: Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay.
He worked as a tugboat man on Sun Francisco Bay.
Names of peninsulas have no article if the proper name is used alone: Indo-China, Labrador, Scandinavia.
Note. We find the definite article if the noun peninsula is mentioned: the Balkan Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula.
Names of separate mountain peaks: Elbrus, Mont Blanc, Everest, Vesuvius;
Some names of foreign mountains keep the definite article: the Matterhorn.
Names of separate islands: Cuba, Haiti, Cyprus, Madagascar, Newfoundland.
Names of falls and mountain passes: the Niagara Falls, the Swallow Falls; the Saint Gotthard Pass.
Note. The definite article is always used with the pattern: the common noun + of + a proper name: the City of New York, the village of Grasmere, the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Straits of Malacca, the Straits of Dover, the Bay of Biscay, the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Finland, the Lake of Geneva, the Island of Majorca.
Note. Geographic names that generally take no article may be occasionally found with the definite or the indefinite articles. This occurs in the following cases.
The definite article is found when there is a particularizing attribute:
In Ivanhoe Walter Scott described the England of the Middle Ages.
This isn’t the London I used to know.
The indefinite article is found when a geographic name is modified by a
descriptive attribute which brings out a special aspect:
The flier went оn to say: "There will be a different Germany after the war."
It was a new Russia that he found on his return.
22. Comment on the use of articles with some semantic groups of nouns: names of seasons, names of parts of the day, names of meals, etc.
Names of seasons are used without articles if they show a certain time of the year:
It was spring. I like spring.
Note. You do not usually use the definite article after “It is” and “It was”
When you are talking about a specific occurrence of a season, you usually use the definite article:
You’ll feel better in the spring.
The definite article is also used when these nouns are modified by particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite:
It happened in the spring of 1930.
The spring was cold and rainy.
In dates you say “spring 1974” but “the spring of 1974”
The indefinite article is used when these nouns are modified by a descriptive attribute:
It was a cold spring.
When names of seasons are modified by the adjectives early or late, no articles are used:
It was early spring.
In American English it is more common to refer to the seasons with the definite article (except after “next” and “last”).
As a rule names of months and days are used without articles:
May is a spring month.
My day off is Friday.
When these nouns are modified by a particularizing attribute and when it is clear from the context what day in a week you are talking about the definite article is used:
The May of 1949 will always rest in my memory.
The meeting will take place not later then the second Monday in May.
Names of days are used with the indefinite article when we identify one day of the week in general or when we mean one of many Mondays, Fridays:
Robinson Crusoe found his servant on a Friday.
Don’t do it on a Monday.
I was always washing on a Monday and baking on a Wednesday.
Compare this with “He bought it on Monday”, meaning “last Monday”
Names of months are used with the indefinite article when modified by a descriptive attribute:
A cold May is the usual thing in our city.
To this group of nouns belong: day, night, morning, evening, noon, afternoon, midnight, dawn, dusk, sunrise, sunset, daytime, nightfall and the like.
1. These nouns are used without articles:
If day and morning, mean 'light', and night and evening mean 'darkness', or if they denote a certain part of the day:
Day broke and we started.
The sun had gone and night had come.
Day is meant for work, night for sleep.
When they are used as a predicative:
It was evening when he decided to lay his books aside and take a walk.
It was dusk but I could see Henry walking across the field.
When these nouns are modified by the adjectives early, late, high, broad because these adjectives do not describe the morning or night, but only show the time:
It was high noon.
It was late evening.
It was early morning.
After the prepositions at, by, about, past, before, after, towards, till, until: at night, at dawn, by day (вдень), by night (вночі), by noon, by midnight, past noon, about midnight, before dawn, after sunset.
After midnight I walked to the beach with him.
There is no article with the nouns morning, day and dawn when they are used as subject to the verbs to break, to be at hand; the same is true of the nouns evening, night, dusk when they are followed by the verbs to fall, to gather, to set in, to be at hand, to come:
Day was breaking when we set out.
The sky was overcast and dusk fell early.
Dawn was breaking among the olives.
When they are modified by the names of the days of the week and the words tomorrow and yesterday:
She was here yesterday afternoon.
I went to Aunt Milly's house on Friday evening.
I shall see him tomorrow morning.
Note. Compare: We met on Saturday night (Ми зустрілися ввечері минулої суботи) and We met on a Saturday night (Ми зустрілися якось ввечері у суботу).
In the following phrases:
all day (long) night after night in the dead of night |
day after day day in day out late at night |
all night (through) from morning till night (to work) day and night |
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But we say: all through the night and all through the day.
In attributive of-phrases. Yet, the definite article is used when a particular day, night is meant:
He always woke up with the first sounds of morning.
2. The definite article is used:
When the speaker uses these nouns to mean a particular day, night. Very often it is clear from the situation or the context but it may also be expressed with the help of a particularizing attribute:
The night was warm and beautifully still.
He decided to spend the afternoon with his friends.
The weather was very cold on the day of his arrival.
Sometimes we find a descriptive attribute with nouns denoting parts of the day, but the definite article will still be used when the situation makes them definite:
I could see a few faint stars in the clear night.
If nouns denoting parts of the day are used generically:
He used to spend the morning lying about the beach.
I often sat up the night with him and read to him to ease his pain.
In some prepositional phrases where they are to be treated as set phrases: in the morning, in the evening, in the daytime, in the afternoon, in the night.
3. The indefinite article is used:
When these nouns are the centre of communication in the sentence and are modified by a descriptive attribute:
I spent a sleepless night.
It was a fine, warm night and Charles and I decided to walk home. On a hot September evening he strolled idly to the embankment.
The definite article is used:
With names of decades, centuries and historic periods and events, which refer to only one particular period: the 1900’s,the Cambrian Period, the Middle Ages, the First World War (but World War II)
With points in a progression: the beginning, the middle, the end.
With points in a time continuum: the past, the present, the future (but at present)
It is possible to use an indefinite article when talking about the life of one particular person: He has a future.
The group includes the nouns: breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and tea.
Names of meals are used without articles when you are talking in general about the standard meals of the day:
When did you have dinner?
I have finished breakfast.
The definite article is used when the nouns are modified by a particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite:
The supper was very different from the one of the evening before. The dinner was excellent, but Isabel noticed that John ate very little.
The indefinite article is used if the name of a meal is modified by a descriptive attribute:
I'll try to give you a decent lunch.
Walter wanted a very special dinner.
You can get a good supper here.
Occasionally, owing to a change of meaning, names of meals become countable nouns. This occurs in the following cases:
when they denote a special formal occasion (dinner party, tea party). In this case both the definite and the indefinite articles may be found here:
Fleur said: "We had a dinner last night."
when they denote a portion. In this case the noun is used with the indefinite article denoting one:
I have not enough money to buy a dinner at such an expensive restaurant.
This group of proper names includes names of various places, objects and notions.
Names of buildings and institutions
The following names typically have the definite article (although on maps the definite article is usually not shown):
Names of theatres (a), concert halls (b), cinemas (c), clubs(d)
a) the Coliseum Theatre, the Opera House, the Globe;
b) the Festival Hall, the Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall;
c) the Empire, the Dominion, the Odeon;
d) the National Liberal Club, the Rotary Club.
Note. The definite article may distinguish a theatre from the street it is in: the Whitehall (a theatre), Whitehall (a street)
Names of hotels, restaurants, pubs, bridges and buildings: the Ritz, the Hilton, the Copper Kettle, the Royal Oak, the Ambassador Hotel, the Continental Hotel the Golden Gate, the Social Science Building.
But many restaurants, pubs, shops, banks are named after the people who started them. These names end in –s’ or –s. Don’t use “the” with these names: McDonalds, Harrods, Lloyds Bank.
Names of museums, picture galleries: the National Gallery, the Louvre, the British Museum, the Scottish National Museum etc.
But in newspaper announcements and advertisements the article is usually not found with these nouns.
The following names typically have no article:
Two-word names in which the first word is the name of a person or a place: Victoria Station, Edinburgh Castle.
But the White House, the Royal Palace, because “white” and “royal” are not names of place or people.
Names of universities, colleges and schools: London University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Trinity College, Manchester Grammar School
Note. The definite article is used with expressions including “of”: the University of London, the University of Moscow.
Names of airports and railway stations: London Airport, Heathrow, Victoria Station. (But the definite article may still be found in this case too)
Names of hospitals: Hillsdale Hospital.
Names of churches, cathedrals and abbeys: St Peter’s, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey.
But with abbeys named after religious orders, and with those followed by “of”, there is a definite article: the Dominican Abbey, the Abbey of Cluny.
Note. When you refer back to a particular building, you can use the definite article in front of the word for the building, which keeps its capital letter.
And so round to the north side of the Cathedral.
Names of streets, roads, squares and parks
Names of streets (a), roads (b), parks (c), squares (d), stadiums and malls (e) tend to be used without any article:
a) Oxford Street, Southampton Row, Pall Mall, Piccadilly, Fleet Street, Whitehall, Wall Street.
But names of some streets are traditionally used with the definite article, e.g. the Strand, the High Street, the Mall and some others.
Note. Names of streets in foreign countries are sometimes used with the definite article, e.g. the Rue de Rivoli (in Paris), the Via Manzoni (in Milan).
b) Charing Cross Road, Park Lane, Broadway, Pennsylvania Avenue.
Certain roads can have the definite article or no article: (the) Edgware Road, (the) Old Kent Road.
Highways and motorways tend to have definite article: the A1, the M1, the New Jersey Turnpike.
c) Hyde Park, Central Park, Memorial Park, Regent's Park.
But: the Snowdonia National Park, the Botanical Gardens.
Note. Names of parks in foreign countries are often used with the definite article: the Gorki Park (in Moscow), the Tiergarten (in Berlin).
d) Trafalgar Square, Russel Square, Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square.
Note 1. Names of squares in foreign countries may have the definite article: the Red Square (in Moscow).
Note 2. When streets names are parts of addresses, the definite article sometimes can and sometimes must be left out: “24 (the) High Street”, “104 Edgware Road”. The definite article is not used in streets signs.
e) Wambley Stadium, Fiesta Mall.
Names of zoos, gardens are used with the definite article: the San Diego Zoo, the Desert Botanical Gardens.
Names of ships, trains, and spacecraft
Names of ships are usually used with the definite article: the Sedov, the Titanic, the Queen Elizabeth.
…and eventually the Queen Elizabeth was put to sea.
The names of smaller boats usually have no article:
The front runner will undoubtedly be Richard Matthew’s converted America’s Cup 12-metre yacht, Crusader.
Established train services have the definite article: the Orient Express.
Spacecraft tend to have no article: Challenger, Apollo 17.
Names of newspapers and periodicals