Determiners – other cases

In general, proper nouns do not use articles. However, there are certain situations which will call for the use of “the” in front of the name.

“The" with Proper Nouns

“The" with Proper Nouns Plural names

The United States The Smiths The L.A. Lakers

Newspapers The Washington Post The National Enquirer The New York Times

Names followed by “of” phrase The Republic of Brazil The Isle of Wright The South of France

Names using a common noun The United Kingdom The Body Shop The Science Museum

Names with adjectives The White House The Open University The Red Room

Bodies of water, except lakes The North Sea The Indian Ocean The Amazon River The Panama Canal, but Lake Ontario

Regions The Northeast The Middle East The Wetlands

Mountain Ranges, but not mountains The Andes The Himalayas The Rockies, but Mount Everest Sugar Loaf Mountain

Public institutions/groups The Catholic church The Protestants The French

Theaters/hotels/galleries The Mazda Gallery The Globe Theater The Cineplex

No articles with singular count nouns

In general, all singular count nouns need to have an article, definite or indefinite. There are special situations, though, where we do not use any article.

No article

Names of languages They speak French.

Names of sports He plays basketball.

Names of academic subjects Jason hates math.

No articles with singular count nouns

Idiomatic expressions with be and go He’s in school/jail/church. She went to work by train.

With meals/diseases/seasons He has pneumonia. They ate dinner out. We’ll travel in summer.

A or An

Use “a” with one and once, because they begin with the sound of “w” as in wall a one-time thing a one-woman man

Remember, the use of “a” or “an” depends not on spelling but on sound. “A” is used for consonant sounds, “an” for vowel sounds.

With abbreviations and acronyms, the use of the article will depend on the pronunciation of the letter:

An FBI agent (eff) An MRS exam (emm) An OAS program (oh), but A PTA meeting (pee) A laser beam