Names of Sporting Events and Festivals

• Names of sporting events usually have the definite article: the Superbowl, the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the Cup Final, the Boat Race, the Grand National, the British Open, and so on.

  • ... events like the World Championship and the Olympic Games.

• You can pick out one particular case of such an event by using the definite or indefinite article: ‘I’ve never been to a Cup Final’.

• Names which are taken from the place where the event occurs have a zero article: Wimbledon (for tennis), Ascot and Epsom (for horse-racing events), Henley (for rowing).

• ... Centre Court seats for Wimbledon, boxes for Ascot.

• Names of religious and other festivals have a zero article: Christmas, Easter, Lent, Carnival, Corpus Christi, Ramadan, Midsummer’s Day, Mother’s Day, New Year’s Day, St Valentine’s Day, and so on. (But note the 4th of July.)

  • Easter is a great time in Poland.

  • ...the last two weeks of Lent.

• But you can pick out one particular event by using the definite or indefinite article: ‘...the rare luxury of a Christmas at home’.

Exercise 1. In the sentences below, only one of the underlined alternatives is appropriate. Cross out the one that is wrong.

1. Italy won a World Cup/ the World Cup in 1982.

2. Are you staying at home for Christmas/ the Christmas?

3. Wimbledon/ the Wimbledon is the most famous tennis event in the world.

4. Don’t forget it’s Mother’s Day/ the Mother’s Day next week.

5. Oscar practically kidnapped JH, in his determination to give him family Christmas/ a family Christmas. (K. Saunders)

6. I can remember Easter/ an Easter when it snowed all the time.

7. They went to the Swiss Alps for the Christmas holidays/ Christmas holidays. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

8. Olympic Games/ The Olympic Games were restarted in Athens in 1986.

9. It’s going to be a lovely Christmas/ lovely Christmas. (S. Sheldon)

10. Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter/ an Easter. (F. Lebowitz)

11. Merry Christmas/ A Merry Christmas to all my friends except two. (W.C. Fields)

Names of Organizations

• Some names of organizations have the definite article and some have a zero article. Names of well-known organizations typically have the definite article, and they keep it when they are abbreviated: the United Nations (the UN), the BBC, the Labour Party, the FBI, the EC.

  • The Labour Party has a job to do.

  • The TUC runs ten-day courses all over the country.

  • The BBC never reported my speeches.

  • ... the role of the UN during the election period.

  • ...something to do with the United Nations.

• If an abbreviation is pronounced as a word (is an acronym), then there is a zero article. So ‘the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ is usually called ‘OPEC’ [ouреk]. Other examples are ‘NATO’ [neitou] and ‘UNICEF’ [ju:nisef].

• ...as a member of NATO.

• Some names of charities have a zero article: Oxfam, Christian Aid, Mencap.

• You usually refer to businesses and chains of shops with a zero article: General Motors, Sony, Woolworths, Shell, Nissan, Singapore Airlines. This applies even when an abbreviation is used which is not pronounced as a word: BP [bi:pi:] (British Petroleum), KLM, BA, ICI, IBM and so on.

• You could have gone to Woolworths.

• Now Collins have brought it out in a new translation.

• …corporations like IBM, RCA and Xerox.

• However, if a word like ‘company’ is used, then the definite article is used: the Bell Telephone Company. You can find alternatives like: ‘General Electric’ and ‘GEC’ as well as ‘the General Electric company’

Exercise 1. In the sentences below, only one of the underlined alternatives is appropriate. Cross out the one that is wrong.

1. United Nations/ The United Nations was formed in 1945.

2. ICI/ The ICI is one of the world’s largest companies.

3. John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher as leader of Conservative Party/ the Conservative Party in 1990.

4. Cathay Pacific/ The Cathy Pacific offers daily fights to Tokyo.

5. There have been arguments about the role of UNESCO/ the UNESCO.

6. Several countries are interested in joining European Community/ the European Community.

7. In 1954 he joined General Electric Company/ the General Electric Company, or GEC/ the GEC as it is usually known.

8. The Barclays Bank/ Barclays Bank have opened a new branch in the High Street.

9. He’s been a newsreader for BBC/ the BBC for 10 years.

10. “Surveillance,” said Morton C slash Scott Rich of CIA/ the CIA. (H. Fielding)

11. Pentagon/ The Pentagon, that immense monument to modern man’s subservience to the desk. (O. Franks)