| Aspect
| Explanation
| Examples
|
|
CALENDAR
| · We use zero articles when we refer to days (and its parts), months;
| In September we went to bus tours round the city on Fridays.
|
| · We can use the to talk about some particular day or month;
| On the Friday I made her a proposal (=on that very day).
|
| · When you use an indefinite article, that means you refer to some day or month as a typical example of.
| It was a Monday morning and life in our city was as busy as it used to be.
|
|
NATIONALITY
| · We use the definite article with nationality adjectives that have at the end of their word -ese, -sh, -ss to refer to all the nation;
| The Swiss are famous for their chocolate, knives, banks; the French are – for their wine and perfume; the Japanese – for their sushi.
|
| · The same way the article is used when we deal with plural nationality nouns;
| The Russians for a long time were competing with the Americans during so called “cold war”.
|
| · We use a/an with a singular nationality word in order to refer to the person as a representative of the particular nation.
| Janis is a Dane, he is from Denmark. Jorje is a Spaniard, he was born in Barcelona. Sean wears a kilt, because he is a Scot.
|
|
GEOGRAPHY
| · The definite article is used whenever you deal with the names of: oceans, seas, rivers, geographical areas;
| I’ve always dreamt to visit the Atlantic Ocean. Though the Black Sea impressed me too. As well I remember a fine river – the Dnieper.
|
| · The article is used with the four corners of the earth. However, we need zero article when we talk about general directions;
| The sun rises in the east. This highway is stretching from north to south of the former Polish kingdom.
|
| · When we deal with lakes, countries or continents we need to use zero article;
| Lake Baikal is one of the most beautiful lakes in Russia. Brazil is in South America.
|
| · We use the definite article with the names of deserts;
| The Gobi desert is the largest in Asia and forth largest in the world.
|
| · Also the- article is to be used with plural or collective nouns.
| When you read about Russia, you can’t miss the Urals. George lives in the UK/ the USA / the Netherlands.
|
| · Traditionally names of islands come with zero article, unless they have a post-modification with of. In this case we use the- article.
| Mark has visited Cuba for the third time since his childhood. The Isle of Man didn’t impress me as much as my brother.
|
