Lesson 258: More about "the"

There seems to be lots of confusion about the definite article: The

As a result, we have another round of when to use "The".  Today I will focus on some when to use the and not use the for similar things.

seas, oceans, and rivers: article

lakes: no article

 

The Atlantic Ocean

The Amazon

The Black Sea

 

Lake Ontario

Lake Biwa

 

continued

mountain:  Usually no article (there are some exceptions)

groups of mountains: article

 

The Matterhorn (exception)

Mount Everest

Mountain Logan

 

The Alps

The Andes

The Laurentian Mountains

Countries are a special case.  When the countries name contains words like republic, union, state...often including the preposition of:  article

When a country's common name is used: no article

The United States of America.

The Republic of Korea

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The United States of Mexico

 

Canada

South Korea

Spain

Finland

Hopefully these examples will help you.  If you have any questions, leave them in the comment box below and check back often to see if I have answered your questions.

Lesson 255--Using THE

 

 

There seems to be confusion about when to use the

I cannot possibly write down everything, but I will give you some useful information to start with.

We use the for words that relate to our environment.  These include:

the sunshine

the future

the weather

the fog

the night

the rain

the wind

the universe

the mountains

the country

the town

the sea

the seaside

the earth

the stars

the sun

the moon

the world

the planets

Lesson 158--Interesting English

 

 

As English teachers we often try to make something slightly complicated much easier for students to understand.  This is not always a good thing.  My students often quote their teacher and tell me that a comes before countable nouns that start with a consonant and an before countable nouns that start with a vowel.

This sounds like a good rule, but isn't.  It isn't starting with a vowel, but starting with a vowel sound.  The following are some examples which prove this.

a university

a uniform

Despite starting with a vowel, the starting sound is a consonant sound.

an hour

an honour

an MBA

an NBA player

an FBI agent

Despite starting with a consonant, the starting sound in a vowel sound.