Look at these examples to see when the is and isn't used.
I'm going to bed.
I walk to work.
My children are going to start school.
I visited the school yesterday.
Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Grammar explanation
Here are some ways we use articles in common phrases and place names.
Common phrases
We don't usually use an article in expressions with bed, work and home.
go to bed / be in bed
go to work / be at work / start work / finish work
go home / be at home / get home / stay at home
We also don't normally use an article in expressions with school, university, prison and hospital.
start school / go to school / be at school
go to university / be at university
be sent to prison / go to prison / be in prison
go to hospital / be in hospital
But we usually use the if someone is just visiting the place, and not there as a student/prisoner/patient, etc.
My son has started school now. I went to the school to meet his teacher.
I went to the prison a lot when I was a social worker.
I'm at the hospital. My sister has just had a baby.
Place names
We don't normally use an article for continents, most countries, cities, towns, lakes, mountains or universities. So, we say:
Africa, Asia, Europe
India, Ghana, Peru, Denmark
Addis Ababa, Hanoi, New York, Moscow
Lake Victoria, Lake Superior, Lake Tanganyika
Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Elbrus
Cardiff University, Harvard University, Manchester University
Some countries are different. Country names with United have the. There are other countries which are exceptions too. So, we say:
the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America
the Bahamas, the Gambia
Seas and oceans, mountain ranges and rivers have the:
the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean
the Andes, the Himalayas, the Alps
the Nile, the Amazon, the Yangtze
Universities with of in the title also have the:
the University of Cape Town, the University of Delhi, the University of Tokyo
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello Iryna_hn,
The reasons for these answers are outlined in the explanation above:
We also don't normally use an article in expressions with school, university, prison and hospital.
But we usually use the if someone is just visiting the place, and not there as a student/prisoner/patient, etc.
In sentence 1, the person speaking didn't go to school as a student -- in other words, they were visiting the school. The same is true in sentences 2 and 3.
If you examine the questions from the tasks, you'll see similar situations when 'the' is used.
If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask us, but please also explain why you think 'the' should or should not be used.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello danisep,
The answers to your questions is on the page.
There is no article before 'Germany' because 'we don't normally use an article for continents, most countries, cities, towns, lakes, mountains or universities'.
However, there is an article before 'Bahamas' because 'some countries are different. Country names with United have the. There are other countries which are exceptions too' (and 'the Bahamas' is given as an example).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello FK1989,
We say 'the Seychelles' (with the definite article). Other than that, both sentences are possible, but have different meanings. The first tells us about your destination; the second tells us about your origin.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lal,
This really depends on your definition of what a tense is. In modern grammar, a tense is generally defined as a change in the form of the verb which denotes the time of the action described. This is different from aspect (perfective and/or continuous), mood (indicative, subjunctive or imperative) and voice (passive or active).
If this definition is used, then we can say that English has two tenses: past and present. Everything else is some combination of aspect, mood and voice with those two tenses. There is no future tense in English, but rather a range of ways to talk about future time, including modal verbs like might, should, may, will etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sherol,
The use of the definite article here is no different from its use in any other sentence. The definite article refers to identified examples. This could be because we have spoken of them before, because they are clear from the context or because they are unique.
For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team