Articles with Names of Parts of the Body

Possessive pronouns, not articles are generally used to modify nouns denoting parts of the body, personal belongings and the like:

The man stood frowning, his hands in his pockets.

She wore a string of pearls round her neck.

I sprained my ankle skiing in the mountains.

However, the definite article is used in prepositional phrase, associated with the object or, in passive constructions, with the subject:

The woman took the boy by the hand.

The dog bit her on the leg.

The definite article is also used to refer to a touch, blow or pain:

She had a pain in the side.

Articles with Names of Specific Periods

Names of decades, centuries, and historic periods referring to only one particular period have the definite article: the nineteen-eighties, the twentieth century, the iron bronze age:

Her best novels were written in the eighties of the nineteenth century.

Past, present and future generally take the definite article:

I’m not making any plans for the future now, I only think about the present or remember the past.

Present and future can be used after at and in respectively without any article:

Try to remember it in future.

It’s not possible to grant your request at present, I’m afraid.

The Use of Articles with Proper Names

Proper nouns are individual names of specific people (Paul, Shakespeare), countries and cities (England, Paris), months and days of the week (August, Monday) and so forth. The main classes of proper nouns are: personal names, calendar items and geographical names: a) continents, b) countries, c) cities, d) rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, e) mountains, etc.

Names of Persons

1. Normally, a personal name, being the name of someone imagined as unique needs no article:

Anthony shrugged his shoulders.

Philip Lombard grinned.

Family relations with unique reference (Mother, Mummy, Mom, Father, Daddy, Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother, Grandfather) behave like proper nouns. They are treated as such by the members of the family and are usually written with the capital letter: “I’d like to see Mother,” said Emily. But: The father was the tallest in the family.

Personal names with nouns denoting titles, ranks or scientific degrees take no article: Lord Byron, Professor Higgins, Dr. Watson, President Lincoln, Colonel Brown. No article is used in combinations like Aunt Polly.

2. The definite articles is used:

a) with a family name in the plural denoting the whole family:

The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individually, but as a family.

We had dined with the Browns several times before.

b) when names of persons are modified by a particularizing attribute (a limiting of-phrase of a restrictive attributive clause):

This Pat wasn’t at all like the Pat of his memories.

This was not the Simon he had known so long.

c) when names of persons are modified by descriptive attributes indicating a permanent quality of the person in question, or by common nouns denoting a profession:

At that moment they were interrupted by the beautiful Mrs. Shobbe.

Have you ever heard about the painter Reynolds?

No article is used when names of persons are modified by the following adjectives: little, old, young, dear, poor, honest: Old Jolyon invited him in, but Young Jolyon shook his head.

d) when the speaker wishes to emphasize that the person named is the very one that everybody knows:

You say Shakespeare lived here. Do you mean the Shakespeare or somebody else?

“Who is this?” ―“Good heavens, don't you know? It is the great Einstein!”

3. The indefinite article is used:

a) to indicate that one member of the family is meant:

His mother was a Devereux: Lady Margaret Devereux.

There is a young American girl staying at the hotel. She is a Miss Pender.

b) to indicate a certain person, normally unknown to the hearer:

At a table in a corner the Colonel was introduced to a Mrs. Bilst and a Mrs. Peek.

I’m spending the day with a Miss Warren.

4. Proper names can be converted into common nouns indicating a) concrete objects or b) someone having characteristics of the person named. In this case they take the article according to the general rule:

Lanny has sold them an especially fine Goya.

Bert Smith had a Citroen, and he drove swiftly and well.

If you are a Napoleon, you will play the game of power; if you are a Leonardo, you will play for knowledge; the stakes hardly matter.

“I don’t pretend to be a great painter,” he said. “I’m not a Michael Angelo, no, but I have something.”