Names of Months and Days of the Week

Names of Seasons

Unit 11

The Use of Articles with Some Semantic Groups of Nouns (1)

· Names of seasons are used without articles if they show a certain time of the year:

It was spring. I like spring.

Note. You do not usually use the definite article after “It is” and “It was”

· When you are talking about a specific occurrence of a season, you usually use the definite article:

You’ll feel better in the spring.

· The definite article is also used when these nouns are modified by particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite:

It happened in the spring of 1930.

The spring was cold and rainy.

In dates you say “spring 1974” but “the spring of 1974”

· The indefinite article is used when these nouns are modified by a descriptive attribute:

It was a cold spring.

· When names of seasons are modified by the adjectives early or late, no articles are used:

It was early spring.

In American English it is more common to refer to the seasons with the definite article (except after “next” and “last”).

· 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 and when it is clear from the context what day in a week you are talking about the definite article is used:

The May of 1949 will always rest in my memory.

The meeting will take place not later then the second Monday in May.

· Names of days are used with the indefinite article when we identify one day of the week in general or when we mean one of many Mondays, Fridays:

Robinson Crusoe found his servant on a Friday.

Don’t do it on a Monday.

I was always washing on a Monday and baking on a Wednesday.

Compare this with “He bought it on Monday ”, meaning “last Monday”

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

A cold May is the usual thing in our city.

Names of Parts of the Day

To this group of nouns belong: day, night, morning, evening, noon, afternoon, midnight, dawn, dusk, sunrise, sunset, daytime, nightfall and the like.

1. These nouns are used without articles:

· If day and morning, mean 'light', and night and evening mean 'darkness', or if they denote a certain part of the day:

Day broke and we started.

The sun had gone and night had come.

Day is meant for work, night for sleep.

· When they are used as a predicative:

It was evening when he decided to lay his books aside and take a walk.

It was dusk but I could see Henry walking across the field.

· When these nouns aremodified by the adjectives early, late, high, broad because these adjectives do not describe the morning or night, but only show the time:

It was high noon.

It was lateevening.

It was earlymorning.

· After the prepositions at, by, about, past, before, after, towards, till, until: at night, at dawn, by day (вдень), by night (вночі), by noon, by midnight, past noon, about midnight, before dawn, after sunset.

After midnight I walked to the beach with him.

· There is no article with the nouns morning, day and dawn when they are used as subject to the verbs to break, to be at hand; the same is true of the nouns evening, night, dusk when they are followed by the verbs to fall, to gather, to set in, to be at hand, to come:

Day was breaking when we set out.

The sky was overcast and dusk fell early.

Dawn was breaking among the olives.

· When they are modified by the names of the days of the week and the words tomor­row and yesterday:

She was here yesterday afternoon.

I went to Aunt Milly's house on Friday evening.

I shall see him tomorrow morning.

Note. Compare: We met on Saturday night (Ми зустрілися ввечері минулої суботи) and We met on a Saturday night (Ми зустрілися якось ввечері у суботу).

· In the following phrases:

all day (long) night after night in the dead of night

day after day day in day out late at night

all night (through) from morning till night (to work)day and night

But we say: all through the night and all through the day.

· In attributive of-phrases. Yet, the definite article is used when a particular day, night is meant:

He always woke up with the first sounds of morning.

2. The definite article is used:

· When the speaker uses these nouns to mean a particular day, night. Very often it is clear from the situation or the context but it may also be expressed with the help of a particularizing attribute:

The night was warm and beautifully still.

He decided to spend the afternoon with his friends.

The weather was very cold on the day of his arrival.

Sometimes we find a descriptive attribute with nouns denoting parts of the day, but the definite article will still be used when the situation makes them definite:

I could see a few faint stars in the clear night.

· If nouns denoting parts of the day are used generically:

He used to spend the morning lying about the beach.

I often sat up the night with him and read to him to ease his pain.

· In some prepositional phrases where they are to be treated as set phrases: in the morning, in the evening, in the daytime, in the afternoon, in the night.

3. The indefinite article is used:

· When these nouns are the centre of communication in the sentence and are modified by a descriptive attribute:

I spent a sleepless night.

It was a fine, warm night and Charles and I decided to walk home. On a hot September evening he strolled idly to the embankment.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-24