Linguistic context

On the evening of departure the whole village turned out to give us the promised farewell dinner. I shall not forget the evening I spent with him.

In these sentences the nouns in question have a limiting modifier.

• Situation of utterance

The night was warm and beautifully still. She went to Scotland for the summer.

Note. In the following structures the articles are used as follows: Night/morning came at last. Day/dawn was breaking when we set out. Night / twilight was falling quickly.

4. The use of articles with names of seasons seems to be optional in combination with such verbs as: to come, to approach, to pass, to be over, to come to an end, to set in and some other phrases. In such instances reference can be made to particular season (spe­cific use) or to any season in general (generic use):

(The) winter came early that year.

(The) summer was over but we had not heard from him yet. In those parts (the) spring usually sets in early. (The) winter is very long here.

The definite article is also optional in adverbial prepositional phrases:

In (the) autumn young Ben was to go to a prep school.

4. Note the use of articles in some prepositional phrases: in the morning, in the evening, in the daytime, in the afternoon, in the night, at night, at dawn, before dawn, after sunset, from morning to night, early in the morning, late at night, all through the day, day after day, night after night, through the autumn, for the winter, dur­ing the summer.

R.L.Stevenson

Articles with Names of Meals

1. Names of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, tea) usually take no article:

Dinner is ready.

Breakfast tomorrow will be at 8 o'clock.

They finished supper in silence.

2. When names of meals have a descriptive modifier, they are used with the indefinite article:

I saw to it that he had g good dianSL

He ordered a modest lunrh_

3. When some particular meal is meant the definite article is used. Specific reference is made clear by the context or situation:

He was eating greedily the lunch his mother had given him.

The dinner was very sound.

4. Names of meals may denote 'dinner party', 'tea party', etc., thus becoming count nouns: the use of articles is then the same as with other count nouns:

Why not give a dinner in his honour?

Fleur said:' We had a dinner last night'.

She ... began to dress for the,dinner to which she had been

invited.

Articles with the Nouns School, College, Prison, Jail, Church, Hospital

These nouns are used without any article when the general idea of these places is meant, i.e. the purpose they are used for. Thus "We say A child goes to school, A student goes to university / college, A criminal goes to prison, etc.:

Why aren't the children at school today? [as pupils] Mrs. Kelly goes to church every Sunday, [for a religious service] Ken's brother is in prison for robbing, [he is a prisoner] Two people were injured in the accident and were taken to hospi­tal. [as patients]

Cf.:

Mr. Kelly went to the school to meet his daughter's teacher. Excuse me, where's the university, please? The workmen went to the church to repair the roof. Ken went to the prison to visit his brother. Nora is now working as a cleaner at a hospital.

Smartness runs in my family. 'When 0 went to school0 was so smart that my teacher was in my class for five years.

G. Burns

Articles with Names of Parts of the Body

Possessive pronouns, not articles are generally used to modify nouns denoting parts of the body, personal belongings and the like:

The man stood frowning, his hands in his pockets. She wore a string of pearls round her neck. I sprained my ankle skiing in the mountains.

However, the definite article is used in prepositional phrases, associ­ated with the object or, in passive constructions, with the subject: The woman took the boy by the hand. The dog bit her on the leg.

He was congratulated and slapped on the back as he was walk­ing across the lawn.

The definite article is also used to refer to a touch, blow or pain: She had a pain in the side.

Articles with Names of Specific Periods

Names of decades, centuries, and historic periods referring to only one particular period have the definite article: the nineteen-eighties, the twentieth century, the Iron/Bronze Age:

Her best novels were written in the eighties of the nineteenth century.

Past, present and future generally take the definite article:

I'm not making any plans for the future now, I only think about the present or remember the past.

Present and future can be used after at and in respectively without any article:

Try to remember it in future.

[from now on; used esp. in giving warnings]

It's not possible to grant your request at present. I'm afraid.

Note. In American English in the future is more common than in future.

Articles with Names of Media and Communications

When referring to radio or television as a form of entertainment or communication we can use the definite article or no article:

People are strongly influenced by the press, the television and the radio in their judgements and attitudes. I just heard him speaking on the radio. It's not so easy to write plays for television.

The abbreviations TV and telly can be used in the same way, although TV tends to occur without an article in this sense: What's on TV?

The definite article is always used in to listen to the radio.

Cf.: to watch television (TV).

When telephone or phone refer to a means of communication, the definite article is used:

A large part of a secretary's day is spent on the telephone. I haven't seen him for ages, but I'm regularly on the phone with him.

Note the expressions by telephone and by phone.

When radio, television (TV) and telephone (phone) denote actual

objects, they behave like other count nouns:

There's a nice photo of her on the television/on the TV. I used to have a radio in the kitchen but I never remembered to turn it on.

She reached for the telephone and dialed her daughter's number.

The newspapers and the papers are used to refer to newspapers as a form of media; the meaning is similar to the press.

What will happen to her if the story appears in the papers?

Note. The paper is used to mean newspapers generally, not one par­ticular newspaper:

This is what we read in the paper.

The definite article is generally used with cinema and theatre:

She lives in the country now but comes to London every week or so to go to the cinema or the theatre.

However, the article can be dropped to refer to these institutions as art forms or professions:

Cinema is different from theatre in several ways.

THE USE OF ARTICLES IN SOME SET EXPRESSIONS

Nouns in Set Expressions Used with the Indefinite Article

to be at a loss

to be/get in a fury/rage

to fly into a passion

to come to an end/to put an end to smth to take a fancy to smb

to take an interest in smth

to have a mind to do smth

to have an eye for (an ability to notice, judge)

with half an eye

to have an ear for music

to have a heart (to be kind or sympathetic)

to give smb a leg up (to help smb to climb)

at a push (with difficulty)

What a nerve!/He's got a nerve!

That rings a bell. (That sounds familiar)

It's a small world!

Nouns in Set Expressions Used with the Definite Article

the other day

on the one hand, on the other hand a slip of the tongue/pen

under the weather (not very well or not very happy) to take the trouble to do smth to be on the safe side

to be up to the eyes in smth {very busy, esp. with work) to be out of the wood (free from danger, difficulty) not to see the wood for the trees

to do the honours (to act as host or hostess by pouring drink or serving food) to break the ice to face the music

to have the nerve to do smth (to stay calm and confident in a diffi­cult situation) to have the heart to do smth

when it comes to the push (when there is a moment of special need) It is out of the question.

Nouns in Set Expressions Used without an Article

at peace /at war with smb /declare war on smb

at work/ to go to work/to come from work/to be late for work

at hand

at first sight

at full speed / volume

according to/behind/ahead of plan/schedule in public/in company in perfect / alphabetical / reverse order on top of the world

true to fact/in point of fact/in (actual) fact to be part of the plan/the programme/the task to be on /return from holiday /leave /sick leave to be in good health /condition /repair to commit murder/suicide to ask for/give/ get permission to go to sea to lose/take heart

to feel sick at heart (sad and without hope) to lose control ofsmb/smth to catch sight of to take notice of to take offence

to seize power /come to power/be in power

to see eye to eye

to set foot (in some place)

to play by ear

to take aim

to take office /hold office / be in office

to take smb prisoner

to take first place / win first prize

to travel first / tourist / economy class

to do smth first thing

to fight tooth and nail

It stands to reason.

It takes a lot of nerve (to do smth).

Touch wood /Knock on wood (AmE)

Set Expressions with Substantivized Adjectives Positive Degree

out of the blue/all of a sudden

out of the ordinary

the long and the short of the matter

from the sublime to the ridiculous

What is the good of... ?

for the common good

to do good /ill

to have something in black and white

to be at large

through thick and thin

at dead of night

in short

in general

Superlative Degree

to hope for the best to do one's best to make the best of smth at (the) best at one's best of the best in the least

to the best of one's knowledge /belief/ability (one's) Sunday best If the worst comes to the worst

Leaving out Articles

Articles can be left out:

1. In notes, notices, instructions, signs, labels, newspaper head­lines, telegrams, etc., i.e. in language which has to be shortened for reasons of space:

in the negative / affirmative on the whole/in the main in the original in the extreme on the loose in/into the open to the full

(to cut smb) to the quick to be on the alert (to live) on one's own to be in the pink to be in the dark to take the good with the bad / the rough with the smooth

Comparative Degree

to get the better (ofsmb/smth) a change for the better /the worse so much the better /the worse to be all/much/none the better /the worse (fordoing smth) to go from bad to worse for better or worse none the less

Private road. File not found. Leader makes statement. Terrorists gun down priest.

2. In double expressions, i.e. before two (or more) nouns referring to a human couple, or to a pair of inanimate objects or to a larger group particularly after prepositions; note that the nouns often contrast in meaning:

The independent allowances for husband and wife will both be available.

They kept the treasure under lock and key day and night.

2. When two nouns, both acting as head of a noun group, are joined together with and or or, the second noun can be without its arti­cle (definite or indefinite):

She took great pride in the beauty and cleverness of her only child.

You can order traveller's cheques through a local bank or travel agent.

It is not obligatory to leave out the second article, but, as some gram­mars point out, the two nouns must be closely related in meaning.

Thus, you couldn't say There was a matchbox and jacket on the table.

2. In introductory phrases like Fact is..., Truth is..Thing is..., Trouble is... .

This use is informal and occurs mainly in spoken English.

Truth is, I can't stand the sight of her.

2. Common nouns used to address a person or animal take no article:

Very well, doctor. I'll follow all your instructions.

Some vocatives sound familiar or peremptory: That's right, girl! Come here, young man!

THE USE OF ARTICLES WITH PROPER NOUNS

Proper nouns are individual names of specific people (Paul, Shakespeare), countries and cities (England, Paris), months and days of the week (August, Monday) and so forth. The main classes of prop­er nouns are: personal names, calendar items and geographical names: a) continents, b) countries, c) cities, d) rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, e) mountains, etc.

Personal Names

1. Normally, a personal name, being the name of someone imagined as unique, needs no determiner:

Anthony shrugged his shoulders. Philip Lombard grinned.

When personal names denote individual representatives of a family, they are treated as countable nouns:

Remember you're an Osborne — it's a name to be proud of. (one of the Osborne family)

It is the nature of a Forsyte to be ignorant that he is a Forsyte. McCaskervilles fought in the Battle of Bannockburn. (some rep­resentatives of the family)

If the family is denoted as a whole, the generic definite article is used: The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individually, but as a family.

The Marchmains have lived apart since the war.

2. When the speaker wishes to emphasize that the person named is the very one that everybody knows, the definite article is used. The definite article here is strongly stressed and pronounced [3i:]:

/ met Paul McCartney the other day. — Do you mean the Paul McCartney? (тот самый Пол Маккартни)

3. The indefinite article before a person's name is also used to indi­cate a certain person, normally unknown to the hearer:

At a table in a corner the Colonel was introduced to a Mrs. Bilst and a Mrs. Peek.

I'm spending the day with a Miss Warren. (некий, какой-то)

Sometimes the adjective 'certain' precedes the personal noun:

I'm going to marry a Miss Bush. — Isn't it a certain Jenny Bush that Frank told me you think the loveliest creature in the world?

4. Personal names preceded by appositive nouns denoting titles, ranks or family relations take no article: Lord Byron, Professor Higgins, Dr. Watson, President Lincoln, Colonel Brown, Aunt Polly.

If the premodifying appositive noun denotes a job, nationality or belief, the proper noun must be used with the definite article but sometimes (especially in American English) the article is omitted:

The artist Stubbs painted mostly horses.

Most of Elton John's early hits were written by songwriter Bernie

Taupin.

In journalistic style, appositive nouns are often used as if they were titles (false titles, or pseudo-titles):

author Jane Austen; hairdresser Caroline Wilson; heiress Jemima Khan;

eternal bachelor Hugh Grant; chairman for personnel Norma Riley;

35-year-old department store heir Ann Johnson; ruined millionaire killer Christopher Foster; assassinated former Prime Minister Mrs Bhutto;

The 'false title' device was popularized by the magazine Time and is now a commonplace of journalese. Writing footballer Matthew Green rather than Matthew Green, the/a footballer has two advantages: it saves some space, and it exempts its users from making the delicate distinction between the footballer (for famous ones) and a footballer (for obscure ones).

The false title is useful to journalists, but does not belong in ordinary writing. Where it is used, it should not be too long; it should not be capitalized (Footballer Matthew Green) as if it were a real title; and it should not be separated by a comma (famous footballer, Matthew Green) from the name it precedes. However, in journalistic styles, a comma may occur if the appositive noun phrase is rather long:

Former Prime Minister and scourge of Europe. Margaret Thatcher spoke out today.

Thus, close restrictive apposition of noun phrases can take three forms of which the first is the most common:

• that famous critic Paul Jones, my good friend Bob, the historian David Starkey

• Paul Jones the critic

• critic Paul Jones, Democratic leader N. Clegg (esp. in American English).

  5. When names of persons have limiting modifiers (a limiting of- phrase or a restrictive relative attributive clause), the definite arti­cle is used in the specifying function:

The Dollie in question is a very lively, happy young woman. The Philip Carey of the earlier book became the I of "Cakes and Ale". This was not the Simon he had known so long.

5. Personal names, when preceded by a descriptive modifier indicat­ing a permanent quality of the person in question, are used indis­criminately either with the definite article or without an article:

You can look at that wonderful photograph of the beautiful Monica Rollo.

She hasn't got lovely eyelashes like marvellous Monica.

The two variants may sometimes express different shades of mean­ing: the variant without an article is generally supposed to be more emotional and more personal than the variant with the definite arti­cle which is more matter-of-fact.

Cf.: I bet your ma kept you well clear of horrible Jesse and The all-powered Jesse had decreed the room as a place of escape from his fretful and peculiar genius.

However, this difference is not always brought out by the context and the usage is often arbitrary. In certain cases, the definite article is added to emphasize the uniqueness of the noun:

Several films have been made about the world-famous Don Quixote.

Mark Anthony was crazy about the beautiful Cleopatra.

5. When preceded by old, young, little, poor, dear, honest and a few other attitudinal or emotive adjectives, a personal name is most­ly used without an article: poor Elizabeth, little Johnny. If the defi­nite article does appear, it is usually to mark a change in the mean­ing of the word group. For example, in Young Shakespeare fol­lowed his father's trade 'young Shakespeare' is not contrasted with either 'old Shakespeare' or 'middle-aged Shakespeare' or any other separate feature of this person. But in The young Shakespeare would not have written that 'the young Shakespeare' brings out only one quality: 'a young, budding playwright called Shakespeare' which is contrasted with the mature dramatist Shakespeare.

[Edward looking at his young father's picture]

'Of course, he won't look like that now.' The young Jesse looked at him mockingly.

5. The indefinite article can be found with a proper name modified by an adjective denoting the mood or an unusual quality of the person described. This noun phrase is the focus of communication, with the nuclear stress (information focus) often on the adjective:

I saw an in'furiated Jennifer, who started shouting at me the moment I opened the door.

I tried to imagine unknown Sarahs — a Sarah laughing. Sarah singing. Sarah dancing.

He patted a smartly dressed Johnston on the arm.

This device is often used to point to temporary, striking features of the person:

Coote appeared in evening dress, a clean and racftant Coote.

A new, unexpected quality of a person can be brought out by the fol­lowing relative clause:

This was a Rowley that she had never known existed.

5. Proper names can be converted into common nouns indicating • concrete objects:

Lanny has sold them an especially fine Goya, (a painting) Bert Smith had a Citroen, and he drove swiftly and well, (a car)

• someone having characteristics of the person named. In this case they take the article according to the general rule of the use of articles with common nouns:

If you are a Napoleon, you will play the game of power; if you are a Leonardo, you will play for knowledge; the stakes hardly matter.

'I don't pretend to be a great painter,' he said. 'I'm not a Michelangelo, no, but I have something.'

^: | ;,■/£■ , 'JfjD <M '' 10. Family relations with unique reference (Mother, Mummy, Mom,

Father, Daddy, Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother, Grandfather, Baby,

Nurse, Cook) behave like proper nouns. They are treated as such

by the members of the family and are usually written with the

capital letter:

'I'd like to see Mother.'said Emily.

Cf: The father was the tallest in the family.

Geographical Names

The use of articles with geographical and place names is largely tradi­tional and cannot be accounted for by simple, straightforward rules. There only two rules that seem to be universal are the following:

• plural proper nouns have the definite article: the Azores, the Pennines, the Great Lakes, the Pyramids.

• the noun followed by the preposition of and a proper noun has the definite article: the Straits of Dover, the City of Leeds, the Gulf of Mexico, the Isle of Man, the Cape of Good Hope, the Tower of London.

(Note the pattern the + common noun + of+proper noun).

In all the other cases, the suggested rules can only serve as general guidelines which reflect the prevailing tendencies. So when you encounter a proper noun you should pay attention to whether it has the definite article or not.

1. Names of continents, countries, states, villages, cities, and towns are normally used without articles. No article is used either when they have premodifying adjectives describing them from a geographical or historical point of view:

(North) America (modern) France

(South) Africa (old) England

(Central) Australia (ancient) Rome

(Medieval) Europe (industrial) Staffordshire

But: the African/American etc. continent

Note. The Hague is an exceptional case, where the definite article is a fixed part of the city name.

Some names of countries have the definite article, in particular those which are expressed by a phrase containing common nouns: the United Kingdom, the People's Republic of China, the United States of America, the Czech Republic. This is the same with abbreviated alter­natives: the UK, the PRC, the USA.

The definite article is also used with the Netherlands and the Philippines, which developed from the plural names of geographical regions.

2. Geographical regions are traditionally used with the definite arti­cle:

the Antarctic (the) Crimea

the Arctic the Middle East

the Caucasus / Caucasia the Riviera

the Midlands (the) Ruhr

These are different from political and administrative regions

that normally take no article: California, Hampshire, Kent, Bavaria, Vermont.

With the names of countries that developed from geographical regions there are often two possibilities: with or without the definite article:

Lebanon or the Lebanon, Yemen or the Yemen, Cameroun or the Cameroons, Congo or the Congo, Ivory Coast or the Ivory Coast, Sudan or the Sudan, Argentina or the Argentine, Ukraine or the Ukraine

The tendency is to use the form without the definite article.

3. Geographical names with limiting modifiers (a limiting of-phrase or a restrictive attributive clause) are used with the definite article:

The graduates are happy to see the Cambridge of their youth again..

This is the booming, rapidly expanding London of the 1860's. The old Britain of the 1970s, with its strikes and poor productivity, is gone._

3. The indefinite article is found when a geographical name has a descriptive modifier bringing out a certain aspect:

We now have a new Britain, confident, optimistic... You haven't come to a very cheerful England.

3. Names of water features: oceans, seas, rivers, streams, chan­nels, canals, waterfalls take the definite article:

the Atlantic (Ocean) the Mediterranean (Sea)

the Pacific (Ocean) the Baltic (Sea)

the Indian Ocean the Black Sea

the Atlantic (Ocean) the Red Sea

the Thames /the River Thames

the Amazon the Hudson River

the English Channel the Straits of Gibraltar

the Bosphorus the Gulf Stream

the Suez Canal the Panama Canal

the Angel (Falls) the Victoria (Falls)

But: Niagara Falls

No article is used with the names of lakes, bays, beaches, capes,

which are usually accompanied by an appositive noun (Lake, Bay,

Beach, Cape).

Superior (Lake Superior), Ontario (Lake Ontario), Loch Ness, Baikal (Lake Baikal), San Francisco Bay, Boston Bay, Palm Beach, Cape Cod

But: the Great Salt Lake, the Lake of Geneva (Lake Geneva), the Bay of Biscay, the Chesapeake Bay, the Cape of Good Hope

3. Names of deserts are generally used with the definite article: the Sahara, the Gobi Desert.

4. Names of individual mountains and islands as well as penin­sulas are used without articles: Elbrus, (Mount) Everest, Mount Fuji, Mont Blanc, Madagascar, Sicily, Long Island, Yukatan, Jutland, Labrador.

But: the Isle of Wight, the Balkan Peninsular, the Scandinavian Peninsular

3. Names of mountain ranges and groups of hills, as well as group of islands are used with the definite article: the Alps, the Andes, the Urals, the Bermudas, the Canaries, the West Indies, the Orkney Islands (the Orkneys) etc.

4. Names of territories consisting of a word combination in which the last word is a common noun are generally used with the def­inite article:

the Lake District, the Yorkshire Forests, etc.

Other Place Names

1. Names of streets, roads and squares tend to have no article:

Oxford Street, Pall Mall, Charing Cross Road, Abbey Road, Park Lane, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Broadway, Pennsylvania Avenue, Fifth Avenue, 42nd Street,.

Note. There are the following exceptions: (the) High Street (in any town), the Mall and the Strand (in London), the Great North Road, (the) Edgware Road, (the) Old Kent Road.

Highways and motorways tend to have the definite article: the A I, the M1, the New Jersey Turnpike, the Oregon Trail

There is no obvious rule for names of buildings with public functions and institutions. The following names typically have the definite arti­cle (although on maps the article is usually not shown):

2. Names of hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs:

the Ambassador Hotel, the Continental Hotel, the Savoy, the Ritz, the Copper Kettle, the Royal Oak, the National Liberal Club, the Cotton Club

Note. Pubs, restaurants, shops, banks and hotels which have the name of their founder in the possessive form (ending in -s or's) take no article:

Luigi's, Selfridges, Harrods, Macdonald's, Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank

3. Theatres, cinemas, museums, picture galleries, concert halls, libraries:

the Coliseum Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre;

the Empire, the Odeon, the Dominion;

the British Museum, the Oriental Arts Museum, the Hermitage;

the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the Tretyakov Gallery;

the Festival Hall, the Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall;

the Bodleian Library

Note. The definite article may distinguish a theatre from the street it is in:

the Whitehall (a theatre) — Whitehall (a street)

4. Two-word names whose first word is the name of a person or place and the second is a common noun, typically have no article. Here belong

• public buildings:

Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Clarence House, Admiralty Arch,

But if the name was derived from a common noun or phrase, the definite article is used:

the White House, the Tower, the Old Bailey

• schools, colleges and universities:

Manchester Grammar School, Carnegie College,

Cambridge University, Kent State University (but the Ohio State

University)

Many universities are referred to with expressions including 'of, and these have the definite article; the University of Wales, the University of California at Los Angeles (but if abbreviated there is no article: UCLA). Many universities have both possibilities: the University of London (which is the official name) and London University. Universities named after a person have only the latter form: Yale University, Brown University.

w

• stations and airports:

Victoria Station, Euston (Station), Heathrow (Airport), Kennedy Airport.

• churches, cathedrals and abbeys;

St Paul's (Cathedral), Canterbury Cathedral, Trinity Church,

Westminster Abbey, York Minster

But the Abbey ofCluny, the. Dominican Abbey.

• bridges:

London Bridge, Tower Bridge,

But the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge

• parks and zoos: Hyde Park, Regent's Park, Kensington Gardens, Central Park, (the) London Zoo

Names of Organizations and Institutions

1. The names of most political or government bodies and insti­tutions have the definite article:

the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Department of Trade and Industry, the State Department, the Cabinet, the Bundestag, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior.

Note. There are the following exceptions: Parliament, Congress, and the names of councils: Kent County Council, Leeds City Council.

Names of locations and buildings that are used to refer metaphori­cally to political institutions stay as they are: Whitehall, Downing Street, Westminster (cf. also: Washington, the Kremlin, the Vatican).

2. Names of well-known organizations are typically used with the definite article, which they keep when they are abbreviated:

the United Nations (the UN), the BBC, the Labour Party, the FBI, the EU

If the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, there is no article:

NATO, ['neitou], UNICEF ['ju:nisef]

3. Businesses and chains of shops are referred to with no article:

General Motors, Sony, Shell, Nissan, Singapore Airlines

This applies also to abbreviations which are not pronounced as words:

BP [bi:pi:] (British Petroleum), KLM, ICI, IBM and so on.

If a word like company is used, then the definite article often occurs: the Bell Telephone Company

So there are the following alternatives:

the General Electric Company, General Electric and GEC.

Calendar Items

1. Names of months and days of the week generally take no arti­cle: May, April, September, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Slowly, slowly, the hours passed. Wednesday dragged on, and it was Thursday.

2. Names of days are used with the indefinite article when one of many Mondays, Fridays, etc, is meant:

We met on Friday. (Cf.: Мы встретились в пятницу) We met on a Friday. (Cf.: Мы встретились однажды в пят­ницу)

This was May, a Friday, noon.

3. When names of months and days of the week have a descriptive modifier, they are used with the indefinite article:

A cold May is the usual thing in these parts.

4. When the noun in question has a limiting modifier, the definite article is used:

'Are you really getting married?' -' Yes. The first Saturday in May.'

Mrs. Trotwood came on the Friday when David was born.

MAIOR SI Ml NCI 111 Ml MS

Miscellaneous Proper Names

1. Names of newspapers published in English are generally used with the definite article: The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, the Daily Telegraph The Washington Post, The New York Times. But: Today.

Note. Do not use the with the names of foreign newspapers: Izvestia, Le Monde, Der Spiegel

2. Names of periodicals such as magazines and journals have either the definite article or no article: Time, Punch, Newsweek, ELT Journal, US News and World Report, USA Today, Scientific American

But: The Spectator, The New Yorker, The Reader's Digest, The Atlantic

3. Names of religious and other festivals take no article: Christ­mas, Easter, Lent, Carnival, Corpus Christi, Ramadan, Midsummer's Day, Mother's Day, New Year's Day, St.Valentine's Day, etc.

But: the 4^th of July

Note. There is a difference between: 'Happy Easter!' and 'I wish you a happy Easter' or 'Didyou have a good Easter?'

4. Names of sporting events usually have the definite article:

the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the Cup Final, the Boat Race, the Grand National, the British Open, etc.

Names which are taken from the place where the event occurs do not have the definite article:

Wimbledon (for tennis), Ascot and Epsom (for horse-racing), Henley (for rowing).

5. Names of ships and boats usually have the definite article:

the Titanic, the Queen Elizabeth, the Bounty, the San Pelayo

The names of smaller boats usually have no article:

What do you call your yacht? — Simply Ambush. — Why not The Ambush?

I don't know. Probably, because it's small.

Names of spacecraft tend to have no article: Challenger, Apollo, Columbia, Discovery.

6. Names of musical groups can have either no article or the definite article;

Led Zeppelin, pj_nk Floyd, Abba, Queen, Dire Straits, Cream, Nirvana

But: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the Who, The Supremes, The Doors

The 'Planets The Moon is made of silver. The Sun is made of gold. flndOupiter is made of tin, So the ancients told. Venus is made of copper. Saturn is made of lead And Mars is made of iron, So the ancients said "But what the 'Earth was made of Very long ago The ancients never toldus Because they didn 't hjww.

E. Farjeon

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