Geographical Names

1. Names of continents, countries, states, cities, and towns are normally used without articles. No articles is used either when they have premodifying adjectives as in: (North) America, (modern) France, (South) Africa, (old) England, (Central) Australia, (ancient) Rome, (Medieval) Europe.

2. Some names of countries, provinces and cities are traditionally used with the definite article: the Argentine (but Argentina), the Ukraine, the Lebanon, the United States of America, the Netherlands, the Crimea, the Hague, the Caucasus, the Ruhr.

3. Geographical names modified by particularizing attributes (a limiting of-phrase or a restrictive attributive clause) are used with the definite article:

Did he quite understand the England of today?

The Philadelphia into which Frank Cowperwood was born was a city of two hundred and fifty thousand and more.

This is the booming, rapidly expanding the London of the 1860’s.

4. The indefinite article in found when a geographical name is modified by a descriptive attribute bringing out a certain aspect: You haven’t come to a very cheerful England.

5. Names of oceans, seas, rivers and lakes usually take the definite article: the Atlantic (Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific (Ocean, the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Baltic (Sea), the Volga, the Thames, the Amazon, the Baikal, the Ontario, etc.

No article is used when names of lakes are preceded by the noun lake: Lake Baikal, Lake Ontario, Lake Ladoga.

6. Names of deserts are generally used with the definite article: the Sahara, the Gobi, the Kara-Kum.

7. Names of mountain chains and group of islands are used with the definite article: the Alps, the Andes, the Urals, The Bermudas, the Canaries, the West Indies, etc.

8. Names of mountain peaks and separate islands are used without articles: Elbrus, Everest, Mont Blane, Madagascar, Sicily.

9. Note the pattern “the + common noun + proper noun” in: the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Finland, the City of New York, the Bay Biskay, the Lake of Geneva, etc.

Names of universities where the first part is a place-name usually have two forms: the University of London (which is the official name) and London University. Universities names after a person have only the latter form: Yale University, Brown University.

Calendar Items

1. Names of months and days of the week generally take no article. May, April, September, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Slowly, slowly, the hours passed. Wednesday dragged on, and it was Thursday.

2. Names of days are used with the indefinite article when one of many Mondays, Fridays, etc, is meant:

We met on Friday. (Мы встретились в пятницу.)

We met on a Friday. (Мы встретились однажды в пятницу).

This was May, a Friday, noon.

3. When names of month and days of the week are modified by a descriptive attribute, the indefinite article is used:

A cold May is a usual thing in these parts.

4. When the nouns on question are modified by a rescriptive attribute, the definite article is used:

“Are you really getting married?” ― “Yes. The first Saturday in May.”

Mrs. Trotwood came on the Friday when David was born.