Articles with geographical names

Generally – no article: Africa, North America, Central Asia (but: the African Continent, the Arctic, the Antarctic)

“The”:

• the USA, the PRC (the People’s Republic of China), the UK, the CIS

• geographical regions: the Midland, the Crimea, the Ukraine (smt – Ukraine), the Middle East, the Riviera

But: political regions – no article: Kent, Bavaria

• the Hague; the Lebanon (now often Lebanon); the Netherlands

• plural nouns: the Azores [ә`zo:z], the West Indies

• limiting attributes: This was not the London he knew.

• “Of-phrases”

• oceans, seas, rivers – “the”

• lakes: no article with “lake”, “the” without “lake”: the Baikal but Lake Baikal.

But: the Great Salt Lake, the Lake of Geneva

• mountains: chains – “the”, peaks – no article

• islands: groups – “the”; individual islands – no article

But: the Isle of Man

• streets and squares – no article

But: the High Street, the Mall (in London), the Strand (in London)

• bays – no article

• deserts [`dezәt] – “the”: the Goby

Articles with names of hotels, cafés, ships, newspapers etc.

• newspapers and magazines: generally – “the” : the Times, the Spectator. But sometimes – no article : Punch

But: a Times – a copy of the Times

No article with the names of foreign newspapers, but the original article is kept: Novaya Gazeta, Der Spiegel.

• ships – “the”, small boats – no article

• hotels and restaurants – “the”: the Hilton (except genitive forms of personal names: Luigi’s)

• museums, galleries, theatres “the”: the Hermitage, the British Museum (except genitive forms of names and titles: Her Majesty’s)

• churches no article: St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey

• buildings – no article: Buckingham Palace (but: the White House, the Old Bailey)

• colleges, universities – no articles: London University (but: the University of London)

• festivals – no article

• political institutions – “the” (even foreign): the Senate, the House of Lords, the Bundestag, the Knesset

Exceptions: Parliament (but: the British Parliament, the Houses of parliament), Congress/the Congress, and names of councils: (the) Leeds City Council

Articles with nouns modified by proper names

If a proper name is in the genitive case – no article: Pushkin’s poetry.

If it is in the common case – “the”; the Tretyakov gallery, the Smith residence, the Bailey case

Articles with predicative nouns

“A” if the speaker means an object belonging to a certain class.

He was a (good) teacher.

“The” if there is a limiting attribute.

He was the teacher I wanted to speak to.

“–/The” if we mean a post which can be occupied by one person at a time.

Dean/the Dean

“–”:

1. after the verbs “turn (становиться), go (становиться), commence (начинать деятельность), appoint (назначать), elect (избирать)”:

He turned traitor.

2. if the noun is followed by “enough”:

He was fool enough to believe it.

3. in adverbial clauses of concession if the noun is at the head of the clause:

Fool as he was,… Child as he was,…

Note: the words “son” and “daughter”: “the” if modified by an of-phrase: the son of a poor clerk. But “a” and the zero article are also possible, esp. when we want to stress the social position.