Use of the word ‘the’
by Dhanya Menon, Technical Writer in Hyderabad, India with additions by Global Talk
The query (on the ITC SIG list) about omission of definite article ‘the’ interested me as I had been reading about the same a couple of days ago. According to High School English Composition and Grammar by Wren and Martin (which is considered an authority in India), in the following situations one must avoid usage of articles:
- Before proper nouns (unless we are using the proper noun as a common noun)
- Before names of individual islands, lakes, hills, mountains
- Before names of meals
- Before languages
- Before names of relations
- Before nouns indicating unique positions (such as Chairman and Principal)
- Before words like church, school, prison, hospital, college, university, bed when these are referred for their primary purpose, for example, “I learn computers at school,” “We go to church on Sundays,” and “I go to bed by ten.” However, when we refer to these as buildings or objects rather than for their primary purpose, we use the article, for example, “The school is near my house,” “I met him at the church,” “The hospital suffered damage during the flood,” and “The bed is broken.”
- Before names of substances and abstract nouns (when used in a general sense)
Global Talk adds the link to another online guide to use of ‘a,’ ‘an,’ and ‘the.’
This information originally appeared in posts on the ITC SIG email list on May 31, 2006 and is published here by permission of the author.