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THE is used before

- singular and plural nouns, countable and uncountable nouns, to talk about something specific or when the noun is mentioned for a second time

- names of rivers (the Mississippi), seas (the Red Sea), oceans (The Pacific), canals (the Panama Canal), groups of islands/states (the Virgin Islands/the USA), mountain ranges (the Urals)

- the equator, the North/South Pole, the South/West/North/East, the north of England

- morning, afternoon, evening (in the morning). But: at night

- historical references/events (the French Revolution, the Dark Ages) But: World War 1

- physical environment (the country, the town)

- newspapers (the Times)

- in front of superlatives and first, lat, next, only, same, right, wrong

No article is used before

- names of countries (Portugal), cities (Lisbon), streets (Regent Street), squares (Constitution Square), bridges (London Bridge), parks (Regent’s Park), Stations (Waterloo Station), individual mountains (Everest), islands (Malta), Lakes (Ontario), continents (Asia)

- substances, liquids and gases

- materials (silk)

- transport with by(by train)

A/an or the is used before

singular countable nouns refer to the group of people, animals or things. (A/The tiger lives in the jungle.(We mean all tigers))

Practice Exercises

I. Find the rule for the underlined words and word expressions in the article.

II. Fill in “the” where necessary

1. …Manila is the capital of … Philippines.

2. …Andes is a mountain range in …South America.

3. A tunnel has been built beneath …English Channel.

4. …. longest river in the world is… Nile.

5. Many people have climbed …Everest.

6. …Sicily is an Italian island.

7. The capital of …Italy is …Rome.

8. …Panama Canal joins …Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

9. Do you know where …Rocky Mountains are?

10. …North Sea is between …Britain and …Norway.

11. I usually go to …work by … bus.

12. They are flying to …. Seychelles.

13. We all need …oxygen.

14. Let’s have a weekend in … mountains.

15. Sorry –it’s ….wrong answer.

16. It’s …best solution.

17. Can you ski on…. Mont Blanc?

18. It appeared in … New York Times.

19. …Australia is in …southern hemisphere.

20. …Trafalgar Square is in …London.

6. Making a summary

Pick out five key sentences and use them to make a summary of the whole passage.

7. Retelling

The author of the text describes the sounds made by the whale in many different ways. List the words and phrases used to describe the sounds, then retell the text using these words, the words and expressions from exercise 3 and the phrases given below.

However,…