No article

Use:

1. When we talk about smth in general, we use plural or uncountable nouns without the.

Shoes are expensive. (= shoes in general).

Milk is good for you. (= milk in general).

It is not always easy to know if smth general or particular. For example:

General	Particular
I enjoy talking to old people. (= old people in general).	Do you know the old people sitting over there? (= particular old people sitting over there).

2. Common expressions without an article

1) School, the school, church, the church etc.

a) We often use the following nouns without an article.

school university college

hospital prison church bed

• Maria goes to school every morning.

• I studied history at university. Americans add “the” here and also with hospital.

• Mr. Woods has gone into hospital.

• John has been in prison for three years.

• I think I’ll go to bed early tonight.

We use these nouns without an article when we think about the main purpose of the place. Compare:

- I think I’ll go to bed early tonight. (to sleep). - Maria goes to school every morning (to study). - Mr. Woods has gone into hospital. (for medical treatment).

- There are some shoes under the bed. - The school was painted last month. - Sarah met Simon outside the hospital.

b) We normally use work and home without an article.

• What time do you usually go to work?

• Would you like to stay at home this evening?

2) Means of transport

We use by car / bus / train / plane etc. without an article, to talk about how we travel.

• I usually go to school by car.

• We went to Rome by train.

We also say on foot (= walking) e.g. I came home on foot.

3) Meals

We do not normally use an article with the names of meals.

• What time do you usually have breakfast?

• When would you like to have dinner?

‹But we use the when we specify e.g. I enjoyed the dinner we had last night.

‹We also use a / an when there is an adjective before breakfast / lunch / dinner / etc.

• They had a large breakfast.

Place – names with and without the

1. Place – names without the

a) We do not normally use the with the names of:

continents	Africa Europe Australia
countries, states, departments, etc.	England, Spain, Brazil, California, Hampshire
cities, towns, villages	Sydney, Tokyo, Bilbao
individual islands	Crete, Long Island
lakes	Lake Michigan, Lake Geneva
individual mountains	Mount Everest, Mount Fuji
streets	Oxford Street, North Road

b) But we use the with these place names when they include a countable noun e.g. union, republic, states, kingdom, isle.

The Soviet Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom.

c) We also use the with plural place-names e.g. the Netherlands, the West Indies, the Alps.

d) We also use the with various others of these place-names e.g. the North / South Pole, the Arctic / Antarctic, the Middle East, the Far East, the Costa Brava, the Ruhr.