Try to study these 7 basic rules
which will help you use the article correctly:
1
We do not
use the article with names of countries.
However there are some exceptions to this rule, e.g.
the United States, the Netherlands,
the Philippines. Other geographical places we do
not use the article with are: the names of continents,
cities, lakes, mountains and streets:
►
Europe, Africa, New
York, Buenos Aires,
Lake Michigan, Lake Geneva, Mont Blanc,
Mount Aconcagua, Fifth Avenue, Florida Street.
But we use
the article with these geographical places: the names
of rivers, canals, oceans, seas, mountain ranges:
►
the Amazon, the Parana,
the Panama Canal,
the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the
Andes, the Alps, the Himalayas.
2
We do not
use the article for referring to uncountable
nouns (or plural countable nouns) in an indefinite way.
But we use 'THE' in the
pattern 'THE'
+ noun + a phrase to indicate who or what we
are specifically referring to:
►
the advice of a
counsellor
the love she gave her children
the letters on his desk
3
We do not
use the article in certain prepositional
phrases with 'institutions' (e.g. church, college,
home, hospital, prison, school, university, bed):
►
My wife's in hospital.
They go to church every Sunday.
He's in prison for armed robbery.
Go to bed immediately!!
In these examples we are
thinking of the
function
of the institution. But when you are thinking of the
institution as a specific
place
you use 'THE':
►
Susan's in the hospital
round the corner.
I want to go to the church where the poet is buried.
The conditions in the old prison were really bad.
Don't put your shoes on the bed.
4
We do not
use the article with personal names:
►
Jane Fonda, Dr
Valladares, Pope Paul
But we use
'THE' to emphasise that someone or something is the
most famous of its kind:
►
You mean the Jane
Fonda?
We also
use 'THE' with people's titles:
►
the Pope, the doctor,
the Emperor of Japan
We use
'A' or 'AN' with people's jobs and professions:
►
Sandra is a doctor,
Mike is an engineer
5
We do not
use the article to refer to plural countable
nouns, but we use
'THE' + an
adjective to refer to a category of people as a
whole:
►
the old, the
handicapped, the Argentinians
6
We do not
use the article with some time expressions:
►
at night, at sunset,
before sunrise, after sunrise
But with many common time
expressions we use 'THE':
►
in the morning, in the
afternoon, in the evening
in the past, at the moment, during the day
7
We do not
use the article when referring to the name of a
sport:
►
I don't like tennis, Do
you play football?
But we use
'THE' for referring to musical instruments:
►
Jorge Essen plays the
piano beautifully.
Below, you will find two activities to
practise this grammar.
ACTIVITY 268:
Look carefully at these sentences. Check
that the articles have been used correctly and make any necessary
corrections. Copy/paste or drag the sentences into the blank
spaces and correct the mistakes.
Then check the correct answers.
1.
At school children study subjects
like the mathematics and the history, and learn how to take their
place in the society.
2.
The young people can learn a lot
from the old.
3.
She wants to be actress like girl
next door.
4.
In the morning he plays the squash
before he goes to the work.
5.
New houses are within easy reach of
shops, public transport and leisure centre just opened by mayor.
6.
Twice a week there are lectures in
the library on the life and culture of the British Isles.
The article (II)
ACTIVITY 269: Read this text
carefully and choose the correct alternative A, AN,
THE or
–
(nothing at all) from the menus. If necessary refer to Mr. Grammar's
explanations. Then
check the answers.
SISTERLY FEELINGS - Hester
Lacey
Sisters are often alike but they are never exactly
same. In
many families one sister is often
called " pretty
one" and other "
clever
one" when they are still babies.
Even
young
children think beauty
is more
important than brains.
"I was so jealous of my sister's
looks. She had long fair
hair and
sweet little
nose, and I thought that she always had prettiest
clothes and most attention.
I hated her and I decided to kill her.
When roof of
house was
being repaired, I dropped
brick out of window when
she was underneath. Thank God it
missed!!", says one ashamed near-murderer.
"I must have been about ten
at time, and she
was eight years
old. Now she tells me that
she always felt stupid beside
me in school
because I was always
good student
and she was weaker at school work.
But when
you're teenager, you want
attention and
compliments
and
boyfriends;
good exam results don't
seem like
fair exchange".
life is particularly hard for someone who wants to follow
in
footsteps of
famous sister. Dee Dee Pfeiffer wants to be
film
star like her sister, Michelle. "When we were
children, Michelle was
beautiful one and I was fat one", says Dee Dee. "I have
been
on
diet for years, trying to achieve
figure which is as good
as hers. In Hollywood everyone looks at you critically, and
compares
you with your
famous sister".
Han sido dos actividades muy
entretenidas !!!
En la próxima página podrás practicar WORD FORMATION con variados
verbos ...
