NAMES OF MEALS.

· Names of meals are used without articles: When did you have dinner? Is dinner ready?

· The definite article is used when the nouns are modified by a particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite: The dinner we had today was very substantial. The dinner was a success.

· The indefinite article is used if the name of a meal is modified by a descriptive attribute.

After a hearty breakfast the four gentlemen sallied forth to walk to Gravesend. (Dickens)

The use of articles with the noun TOWN

· The noun town when used with prepositions does not fake an article:

(a) when we mean the nearest town (if we live in the country) or the town we live in.

You cannot go to town tomorrow. (Austen) What can you have to do in town,..? (Austen)

(b) when the noun town is opposed to the noun country.

He was not used to country life, having spent twenty years in town.

· Otherwise the noun town is used with the definite or indefinite article.

I want to go to the town where I was born.

SCHOOL, COLLEGE, BED, PRISON, JAIL.

The nouns school, college, bed, prison, jail are used without an article when they lose their concrete meaning and express the purpose for which the objects denoted by these nouns serve.

When these nouns denote concrete objects the articles are used according to the general principle.

to go to school – to be a schoolboy (schoolgirl)

to go to the school — not as a pupil (the building is meant)

to be at school / to be at college—to be a student of a college

to leave school — to finish or drop one's studies

School begins at five. It was at seventeen that he decided to leave school.

to leave the school—to leave the building

Mother went to the school yesterday to attend a parents' meeting. She left the school at 7 o'clock.

to go to bed — ложиться спать to be in bed — лежать в постели

And now you had better go to bed. Good-night. (Voynich)

to be in the bed / to be on the bed – an article of furniture is meant

Her portrait was on the wall beside the bed. (Voynich)

to be in prison (in jail) — to be a prisoner

In be sent to prison / to be put in prison as a prisoner

Mr. Dorrit was in prison many years. Mr. Dorrit was sent to prison for debt.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1025