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Grammar: Proper Nouns without THE |
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We do not use “the” with names of people. |
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Example |
| first names |
Bill (not *the Bill) |
| Hilary |
| surnames |
Clinton |
| Gates |
| full names |
Hilary Gates |
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We do not normally use “the” with names of companies. For example:
- Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishCLUB.net
- General Motors, Air France, British Airways
- Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd
We do not normally use “the” for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -’s or -s). |
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Example |
| shops |
Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys |
| banks |
Barclays Bank |
| hotels, restaurants |
Steve’s Hotel, Joe’s Café, McDonalds |
| churches, cathedrals |
St John’s Church, St Peter’s Cathedral |
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We do not normally use “the” with names of places. For example: |
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| towns |
Washington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo |
| states, regions |
Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe |
| countries |
England, Italy, Brazil |
| continents |
Asia, Europe, North America |
| islands |
Corsica |
| mountains |
Everest |
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Exception! If a country name includes “States”, “Kingdom”, “Republic” etc, we use “the”: |
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| states |
the United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA |
| kingdom |
the United Kingdom, the UK |
| republic |
the French Republic |
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We do not use “the” with “President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name”: |
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| the president, the king |
President Bush (not *the President Bush) |
| the captain, the detective |
Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo |
| the doctor, the professor |
Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle |
| my uncle, your aunt |
Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill |
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Mr Gates (not *the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton, Miss Black |
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Look at these example sentences:
- I wanted to speak to the doctor.
- I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.
- Who was the president before President Kennedy?
We do not use “the” with “Lake/Mount + Name”: |
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| the lake |
Lake Victoria |
| the mount |
Mount Everest |
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Look at this example sentence:
- We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic view across the lake.
We do not normally use “the” for roads, streets, squares, parks etc: |
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| streets etc |
Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue |
| squares etc |
Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus |
| parks etc |
Central Park, Kew Gardens |
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of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use “the”:
| people |
Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral |
| places |
Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle |
» Proper Nouns with THE |
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