jueves, 9 de mayo de 2013

Omission of "the"



Omission of articles (the)

Articles are not used with uncountable nouns when we make general statements.

I love coffee. (NOT... a coffee OR the coffee)
Milk is rich in nutrients. (NOT The milk OR a milk)
We can't do without water. (NOT The water OR a water)
She likes reading books. (NOT...the reading books OR a reading books)

Before plural nouns used to denote a class:

Apples are red.
Camels are useful animals.
Warm clothes are necessary in cold climates.

With the names of languages

Hindi is the national language of India.
It is not easy to learn French.
English is spoken in many parts of the world.

We do not use articles with proper nouns (the names of people, places, continents, countries etc.)

Alice is an architect. (NOT The Alice or a Alice)
Mary is my friend. (NOT The Mary)
I Love Paris

We do not use articles with titles and names.

Princess Diana was killed in a car accident.
President Kennedy was assassinated.
But we say, the queen of England, the President of USA

Articles are not used to talk about the coming or last day/month.

See you on Friday. (=Coming Friday)
We are leaving for the US next week. (NOT …the next week.)

But we use articles with the names of days of the week and months if we are talking about particular days or months.

We met on a rainy Friday.
It was a wet Monday in May.
She died on the Thursday after the accident.

 In certain phrases made up of a preposition + noun:

Examples are: on foot, at school, from top to bottom, at home, in bed, by train, by car, in debt, in hand, on earth, at noon, on board, in jest, at best, at worst etc.

He is in debt. (NOT He is in the debt.)
He is at school. (NOT He is at the school.)
He spent the whole day in bed.

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