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 Rona Niki,
No, I'm afraid that is not correct.
In a general context, we'd say 'I'm living in a city in Thailand'.
If there is a list of cities and some of these cities are in Thailand, you could say 'I'm living in one of the cities in Thailand'. The definite article 'the' before 'cities' shows that you are referring to the list of cities that has already been mentioned.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Could you please help me with this?
Which one(s) is/are correct?
(a) The "The Father"* film
(b) The film "The Father"*
(c) "The Father"* film
(d) The "Father"* film ("The" belongs to "film".)
* This part could also be in italics instead of quotation marks.
I know that (b) is correct, and I think that (d) is unlikely. However, I'm not so sure about the other two.
One more question: if we were talking about the musical "Les Misérables" (which is French), would you say "The 'Les Misérables' musical"?
Hi Sefika,
Options a and b are correct. However, a sounds strange because of the double "the", even though it's correct. For that reason, I think b is the best option, and some people might even choose to say option d to avoid the double "the" (even though it doesn't actually give the name of the film accurately, it might still be enough to communicate to the listener/reader which film is being referred to).
About your second question, yes, you could say that. But I think saying the musical "Les Misérables" sounds better. Most often, I think people just say Les Misérables and expect that listeners already know that it is a musical.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you so much, Jonathan, for the clear and detailed explanation.
I'm writing the question again because I noticed that I had written the earlier one under a different category.)
Which of the following is used in English (apart from "Block E" or "Building E")?
a) She lives in E Block/Building.
b) She lives in the E Block/Building.
Thank you in advance.
Hello Sefika,
This question has already been answered on the other page.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
It doesn't seem to be possible that a new route from Ukraine ports in terms of both financial expense and Russian counterparts.
Hello,
Please let me know which sentence is correct and why:
We went for a long walk along the Fifth Avenue.
Or
We went for a long walk along Fifth Avenue.
Thank you.
P. S. I know that we should use "the" article in front of ordinal numbers but somehow this Fifth Avenue sentence confused me.
Hi Aona,
If "Fifth Avenue" is the name of a street/road, then it should not have "the". For example, there is a famous road in New York called Fifth Avenue.
If "fifth avenue" is a description, then it should have "the" (e.g. We went for a long walk along the fifth avenue after the train station).
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Thank you very much!
I apologize for being confused, but please help me with this one (also, articles- a very confusingmatter for me):
I went to prison to visit my husband.
Or
I went to the prison to visit my husband.
Are both of these correct or just the second one and why?
Thank you soooo much.