§ 13. Geographical names.

The following geographical names are used without articles:

1. Names of continents:

Africa, Antarctica, America, Asia, Australia, Europe

But: the Arctic, the Antarctic, as they denote the regions round the north and south poles.

2. Names of countries, counties, provinces, states:

France, Italy, Texas, Wisconsin, Devonshire, Scotland

Note 1. Some names of countries, counties, etc. require the definite article; some other names can be used with or without the definite article: (the) Congo, (the) Lebanon, (the) Senegal, the Ruhr, the Saar, the Ukraine, the Crimea etc.

Note 2. Names of states consisting of word groups are used with the definite article:

the United States of America (the USA), the UK.

3. Names of cities, towns, villages:

London, New York, Stradford-on-Avon

Note: The only exception is the Hague

4. Names of mountain peaks, islands:

Elbrus, Mount Everest, Cyprus, Man, Java

5. Names of lakes:

Lake Michigan, Lake Baikal BUT: the Michigan, the Baikal

6. Names of waterfalls:

Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls

7. Names of bays:

Hudson Bay

8. Names of peninsulas and capes:

Hindustan, Labrador, Cape Horn

Note. If the noun peninsula is added, the definite article is used.

The Hindustan Peninsula, the Balkan Peninsula

Geographical names modified by a particularizing attribute are used with the definite article.

The Philadelphia into which Frank Algernon Cowperwood was born was a city of two hundred and fifty thousand and more. (Dreiser.)

Other geographical names take the definite article.

These are:

1. Names of seas, oceans, rivers, straits, canals:

The Atlantic (ocean), the Mediterranean (Sea), the Thames, the Mississippi, the Bering Strait, the Suez Canal, the English Channel

2. Names of mountain chains and groups of islands:

the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, the Hawaii, the Bermudas

3. Names of deserts:

the Sahara, the Gobi

4. Names of mountain passes:

the Saint Gotthard Pass

5. Geographical names having the plural form:

the Midlands, the Netherlands, the Yorkshire Forests , the Netherlands

Names of streets and squares are used without articles: Oxford Street, Wall Street, Trafalgar Square, Russell Square. There are a few exceptions: the High Street, the Strand, the Red Square.

§ 14. Names of hotels, ships, newspapers and magazines.

Names of hotels, ships, newspapers and magazines are used with the definite article.

And he added that the Independent had accepted and was about to publish two poems, which he had been able to write because of her. (Dreiser)

The three men came to the turning at the corner of the Grosvenor Hotel. (Hichens)

§ 15. Names of cardinal points.

With the names of cardinal points the definite article is used:

the North, the South, the West, the East.

In the expressions from East to West, from North to South no article is used.

§ 16. Names of months and days.

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 the definite article is used.

The May of 1949 will always rest in my memory.

Miss Trotwood came on the Friday when David was born.

Names of days are used with the indefinite article when we mean one of many Mondays, Fridays etc.

Robinson Crusoe found his servant on a Friday.

I do not remember exactly when he came from Moscow, but I am sure, it was on a Monday.

Names of months are used with the indefinite article when modi­fied by a descriptive attribute.

A cold May is the usual thing in Leningrad.