The Use of Articles with Personal Names

The names of people usually have no article: Anna Flintstone, Christian Dobbs, Mr Taylor, Dr Stone, Captain Farrell, Lord Chesterton, etc.

Referring to family members normally requires no article either: Father, Dad, Mother, Mum, Granny, Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt, etc.

1. THE is used:

1) to refer to a whole family or some of its members: the Davises, theDicksons, etc. The Price sisters have opened a boutique.

2) with names of persons modified by a particularizing attribute: You are not theAndrew Manson I once married.

3) with names of persons modified by adjectives or participles: Theastonished Tom couldn't say a word.

NOTE: a) No article is used when personal names are preceded by the adjectives old, young, poor, good, mad, kind. The adjectives can be capitalized and become part of the name: Young Forsyte, Poor Uncle Roger.

b) The is optional when the title is a complement: Nixon became (the) President of the USA. Blair became (the) Premier of the UK.

c) Theis omitted when as is used or implied: Schroeder was elected Chancellor of Germany.

4) with names of persons used as common nouns: Mozart has been called theRaphael of music.

5) to emphasise uniqueness (with names of famous people): – I saw Richard Geare the other day. – Do you mean the Richard Geare, the Hollywood star?

6) in certain titles:the Reverend Peter Collins, thePrince of Wales (but Prince Charles), theDuke of Westminster, theDuchess of York. Also: WilliamtheConqueror, Ivan theTerrible, Alfred theGreat.

NOTE: If a title is followed by a proper name no article is used: Queen Elizabeth II (the second), Prince Philippe, General Powell, Colonel Bridges.

2. A/AN is used:

1) when the speaker or writer is suggesting that the reader or listener does not know the person, something like "a certain" or "someone called...": A Mr Jones called while you were out (некий, какой-то).

2) with a well-known name associated with typical features: He is aNewton in his field.

3) to denote a representative of a family: "Florence will never beaDomby," said Mrs Chick.

4) to refer to a product or work by someone:a Chaplin film, aChannell perfume, aLaura Ashley dress, aSteinway piano, aHemingway novel, etc. Would you recognize aTitian? (a painting)

5) to refer to a copy or instance of something, especially a newspaper or magazine: Could you buy aCosmopolitan for me on your way home?

4.2. The Use of Articles with Geographical/Topographical Features.

With place names the use of articles is fixed; some have the definite article and some have no article. There are some hints:

a) plural nouns have the: the Bahamas, thePennines

b) constructions made up of two nouns separated by of tend to have the: the Strait of Dover.

1. THE is used:

1) with cardinal points and regions: the North /South/West/East, TheMiddle East, thewest of England, the Balkans, the Lake District, thePrairies, theMongolian Stepps.

2) with a few countries that have plural nouns as their names: the Netherlands, thePhilippines.

3) with a few countries where the is optional: (the) Sudan, (the) Lebanon, (the) Yemen, (the) Gambia.

4) with the countries: the Argentine (or Argentina), the Vatican.

5) with the countries whose names include the words kingdom, republic, state, union: the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Republic of Ireland, the Soviet Union.

This is the same with abbreviated alternatives: the UK, the USA, the USSR, etc.

6) with oceans, seas, rivers, canals: the Atlantic (Ocean), theMediterranean (Sea), the Danube (River), the Panama Canal.

7) with deserts: the Sahara(Desert), the Gobi (Desert), the Kara-Kum (Desert).

8) with mountain ranges: the Rockies, the Himalayas, the Carpathians, the Alps, the Grampian Hills.

9) with groups of islands: the British Isles, the Channel Islands.

10) with other sea features: the Gulf Stream,the English Channel,the Bosporus, the Strait of Gibraltar, etc.

2. No article is used:

1) with names of continents, most countries, cities, towns and villages: Asia, Europe, Germany, Manchester, Tonbridge, Singleton.

NOTE: a) the City (of London),the Hague (the is a fixed part of the place name);

b) the is used to pick out a particular "version" of something: The Paris of my youth no longer exists. This isn'tthe London I used to know.

2) with geographical areas and administrative regions of countries: Central Asia, Inner London, North (South) Carolina, Upper Austria, Bavaria, Quebec.

3) with lakes, individual mountains, islands and bays: Lake Geneva, Lake Baikal, Lake Ontario (but: the Lake of Geneva, the Ontario,the Great Salt Lake); Everest, Mont Blanc, Kilimanjaro, Ararat (but: the Matterhorn, the Eiger); Easter Island, Malter, Cyprus, Haiti (but: the Isle of Capri,theIsle of Man.); San Francisco Bay (but the Bay of Biscay).

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1514