Calendar Items

Geographical Names

1. Names of continents, countries, states, cities, and towns are normally used without articles. No articles is used either when they have premodifying adjectives as in: (North) America, (modern) France, (South) Africa, (old) England, (Central) Australia, (ancient) Rome, (Medieval) Europe.

2. Some names of countries, provinces and cities are traditionally used with the definite article: the Argentine (but Argentina), the Ukraine, the Lebanon, the United States of America, the Netherlands, the Crimea, the Hague, the Caucasus, the Ruhr.

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

Did he quite understand the England of today?

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

This is the booming, rapidly expanding the London of the 1860’ s.

4. The indefinite article in found when a geographical name is modified by a descriptive attribute bringing out a certain aspect: You haven’t come to a very cheerful England.

5. Names of oceans, seas, rivers and lakes usually take the definite article: the Atlantic (Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific (Ocean, the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Baltic (Sea), the Volga, the Thames, the Amazon, the Baikal, the Ontario, etc.

No article is used when names of lakes are preceded by the noun lake: Lake Baikal, Lake Ontario, Lake Ladoga.

6. Names of deserts are generally used with the definite article: the Sahara, the Gobi, the Kara-Kum.

7. Names of mountain chains and group of islands are used with the definite article: the Alps, the Andes, the Urals, The Bermudas, the Canaries, the West Indies, etc.

8. Names of mountain peaks and separate islands are used without articles: Elbrus, Everest, Mont Blane, Madagascar, Sicily.

9. Note the pattern “the + common noun + proper noun” in: the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Finland, the City of New York, the Bay Biskay, the Lake of Geneva, etc.

Names of universities where the first part is a place-name usually have two forms: the University of London (which is the official name) and London University. Universities names after a person have only the latter form: Yale University, Brown University.

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. (Мы встретились в пятницу.)

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

This was May, a Friday, noon.

3. When names of month and days of the week are modified by a descriptive attribute, the indefinite article is used:

A cold May is a usual thing in these parts.

4. When the nouns on question are modified by a rescriptive attribute, 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.

Miscellaneous Proper Names

1. Names of streets and parks are generally used without articles: Oxford Street, Regent Street, Fleet Street, Wall Street, Pall Mall, Picadilly; Trafalgar Square, Russel Square, Picadilly Circus, Hyde Park, Central Park, Memorial Park.

Note that some streets are traditionally used with the definite article: the Strand, the High Street.

2. Names of theatres, museums, picture galleries, concert halls, cinemas, clubs and hotels tend to be used the definite article:

the Bolshoi Theatre, the Opera House, the Coliseum Theatre;

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

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

the Festive Hall, the Albert Hall, the Carnegie Hall;

the Empire, the Odeon, the Dominion;

the National Liberal Club, the Rotary Club;

the Ambassador Hotel, the Continental Hotel, the Savoy, the Ritz.

3. Some grammarians point out a growing tendency not to use articles with names of airports and railway stations: London Airport, Moscow Airport, Victoria Station.

4. Names of ships and boats are used with the definite article: the Titanic, the Sedov.

5. Names of newspapers and magazines are generally used with the definite article: the Times, the Guardian, the Lancet, the Language; some of them have no article: Punch, Newsweek.

6. Names of territories consisting of a word combination in which the last word is a common nouns are generally used with the definite article: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Forests, etc.

7. 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 EC.

If the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, there is no article: NATO, [‘neitou], UNICEF [‘ju:nisef].

Business and chairs of shops are referred to with no article. General Motors, Sony, Woolworths, Shell, Nissan, Singapore Airlines.

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

8. 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 of Industry, the State Department, the Cabinet, the Bundestag.

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

9. Names of musical groups can have either no article or the definite article; Queen, the Beatles, Dire Straits, the Supremes, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, the Shadows, the Eurythmics, the Doors.

10. Names of sporting events usually have the definite article: the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the Superbowl, the Cup Final, the Boat Race, the Grand National, the British Open, etc.

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

Note the difference between: Happy Easter! and I wish you a happy Easter or Did you have a good Easter?

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27