Directions

• Nouns indicating directions, such as ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’, and ‘west’, and ‘left’ and ‘right’, have the definite article:

• Then circle to the left.

• ...across the border to the south.

• ...just to the north of the little bay.

• ‘North’, ‘south’, ‘east’, and ‘west’ can also be used with the definite article to refer to one part of a country; if they refer to an accepted region they sometimes begin with a capital letter:

• ...while she was away in the north.

• ...in the North of England.

• You can use ‘the left’ and ‘the right’ to describe the political movements which support socialism and capitalism respectively; ‘left’ and ‘right’ may start with a capital letter in this case.

  • ...the parties of the left.

  • ...pressure by the Left.

• Note These words are also used as adverbs without an article.

• I was again heading north.

Exercise 1. Choose an appropriate noun group to complete the following sentences.

1. Vietnam is to ………….. of China.

2. Scotland is to ………….. of England.

3. The Conservative Party is on ………….. of British politics.

4. London is in ………….. of England.

5. ………….. is a term applied to Western Europe and North America.

6. In Britain, India an some other countries, you should drive on ………….., but in most of the world people drive on ………….. .

7. News is that which comes from ………….., ………….., ………….. and ………….., and if it comes from only one point on the compass, then it is a class publication and not news. (B. Disraeli)

8. The Labour Party is to ………….. of the Liberals.

9. ………….. defeated ………….. in 1865.

10. Heathrow airport is a few kilometers to ………….. of London.

Diseases

• Article usage with the names of illnesses and other conditions is sometimes inconsistent, and can vary with the same word. Normally nouns referring to illnesses are uncountable and are used with a zero article. Here is a list of common words like this:

AIDS anaemia appendicitis cancer cholera diabetes

diarrhoea hepatitis herpes influenza laryngitis leukaemia

malaria pneumonia rabies rheumatism scarlet fever smallpox

tonsillitis tuberculosis typhoid yellow fever bronchitis diphtheria

• ‘Cancer’ can also be countable, but combinations with it are uncountable, for example ‘lung cancer’.

• With the names of some common infectious diseases the definite article can be used, as well as a zero article, but it is not as common. This applies to ‘flu’ (but not ‘influenza’), ‘measles’, ‘mumps’, and ‘chickenpox’.

  • She’s coming down with the flu./ I had a mild attack of flu.

  • ...unlike the measles itself. / ...the first symptoms of measles.

• The definite article is found with names of diseases when the speaker refers to some particular case (with less dangerous diseases).

• Certain nouns which are not special medical terms are used to name diseases; they behave as countable or uncountable nouns: ‘a cold’, ‘a chill’, ‘a cough’, ‘a high blood pressure’, ‘a heart attack’, ‘a sore throat’, ‘a pain in the back/ in the knee’ are treated as simple countable nouns; ‘heart trouble’, ‘liver trouble’ – as uncountable nouns.

• Words ending in ‘-ache’ behave in different ways, in British English. ‘Earache’, ‘toothache’, ‘backache’, ‘stomach-ache’, and so on can be uncountable or countable, so you can say ‘I’ve got earache’ and ‘I’ve got an earache’.

• He was suffering from severe earache.

• One morning she developed an earache.

• ...various infusions which she used for sore eyes, toothache and muscular pains.

• ...when a woman with a toothache was brought to us.

• ‘Headache’, however, is a countable noun, and so you can have ‘a headache’ or regular ‘headaches’, but you cannot say ‘I’ve got headache’.

• Next morning she complained of a headache.

• In American English, all ‘-ache’ words are countable nouns, so it is not possible to say ‘I’ve got earache’, and so on.

• Note The noun ‘heartache’ is used figuratively denoting deep sorrow or grief.

Exercise 1. Insert articles where necessary.

1. I forced a smile, and did not answer him, aware now of a stab of panic, __ uneasy sickness that could not be controlled. (D. du Maurier)

2. The boy Roger had arrived home with __ measles; they were all in __ quarantine. I could not help blessing __ measles. (D. du Maurier)

3. When Amory had __ whooping-cough four disgusted specialists glared at each other hunched around his bed; when he took __ scarlet fever the number of attendants, including physicians and nurses, totalled fourteen. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

4. Half an hour before she was going to start she had __ side ache and __ high fever. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

5. In actuality Dick was sick with __ flu. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

6. Unfortunately, she is in __ coma, and the doctors have no way of knowing if she will ever come out of it. (M. Gabot)

7. On an evening in early July, James Cameron suffered __ heart attack. (S. Sheldon)

8. Dick has had __ grippe and is starting home to-morrow. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

9. This cancer wing I’ve donated is particularly important to me, as you know that __ cancer was what took your beloved grandfather from me. (M. Gabot)

10. Oh, Mel, about Aaron. Look, can’t you throw me a bone? He’s no good to me like this. And all that Wagner is giving me __ migraine. (M. Gabot)

11. She had suffered __ stroke. (S. Sheldon)

12. He’s got __ asthma.

13. I am writing this from home to let you know I will not be in today due to the fact that I have woken up with __ sore throat, fever, and runny nose. (M. Gabot)

14. We recommend that children and teenagers are inoculated against __ meningitis.

15. Love’s like __ measles – all the worse when it comes late in life. (D. Jerrold)

Exercise 2. In some of the sentences below both the noun groups that are underlined are possible. In others only one is correct. Put a ring around the ones that are correct.

1. Do you suffer from a malaria/ malaria?

2. I get fed up when I have a cold/ cold because my nose goes bright red.

3. What is the best treatment for flu/ the flu?

4. I took some aspirin for a headache/ headache.

5. Leukemia is cancer/ a cancer of the blood.

6. Don’t sit in a draught or you’ll catch a chill/ chill.

7. She developed stomach cancer/ the stomach cancer a month after the marriage broke up.

8. I hope I haven’t caught hepatitis/ a hepatitis.

9. When the Czar has a cold/ cold all Russia coughs. (Russian proverb)

10. Cancer/ The cancer causes a lot of suffering.

11. In rural cottage life not to have rheumatism/ a rheumatism is as glaring an omission as not to have been presented at Court would be in more ambitious circumstances. (Saki)

12. Anybody who is 25 or 30 years old has physical scars from all sorts of things, from tuberculosis/ the tuberculosis to polio/ the polio. It’s the same with the mind. (M. R. Kaufman)

13. AIDS/ The AIDS spread rapidly during the 1980s.

14. He died of brain haemorrhage/ a brain haemorrhage.

15. You’ve got ulcer/ an ulcer.