Articles

The

1.
Μιλάμε για συγκεκριμένα ουσιαστικά.
Τα έχουμε αναφέρει πριν λίγο.
Απαντάμε στο "ποιος" "ποια" "ποιο".

•  I bought a shirt and a dress. The shirt is red and the dress is blue.

2. When we define or identify a particular person or object.

• The man who wrote this book is famous.
• I scratched the red car parked outside.
• I live in the small house with a blue door.
• He is the doctor I came to see.

3. In front of countable nouns representing a whole class or category of something (person, animal, thing).

countable singular = a / an / the = The dolphin is a clever mammal.

countable = ------ : Dolphins are clever creatures.

• The computer has changed our lives.
• It is left up to the consumer to decide which one to buy.
• We all have a duty to look after the old and infirm.
• The blue whale is thought to be the largest animal ever to have lived.

4. Date: June the twenty-first / The twenty-first (day) of June.



5. Κάτι είναι ένα και μοναδικό. The one and only...

• The moon
• The sun
• The world
• The sky

6.....This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective or adverb:

• He is the tallest boy in the class.
• He is the most respected man in the firm. (But: Most + noun without the = Most children are shy) 
•  It is the oldest building in the town.

................because there is only one in that place or in those surroundings:

We live in a small village next to the church.	=	(the church in our village)
Dad, can I borrow the car?	=	(the car that belongs to our family)
When we stayed at my grandmother’s house we went to the beach every day.	=	(the beach near my grandmother’s house)
Look at the boy in the blue shirt over there.	=	(the boy I am pointing at)

7. Titles:

• The Pope
• The President
• The Duchess of York
• The Queen of England  αλλά: Queen Victoria / Princess Diana (όχι όταν εμπεριέχει όνομα)

8. Με ιστορικές περιόδους / γεγονότα

• The Blitz
• The Midlle Ages
• The Crimean War (but: World War II)

9. Με τα First, Last, Only όταν λειτουργούν ως επίθετα:

• He was the first person to arrive 

7. Με επίθετα

• The Simsons
• The Kardashians
• The Obamas

8.  Με εθνικότητες που λείγουν σε -sh -ch ese:

• The French
• The Scotish
• The Japanese

Οι άλλες είτε παίρνουν είτε όχι:

• The Greeks / Greeks

9. With decades.

• He was born in the seventies.
• This is a painting from the 1820's.

9. Μουσικά έργανα

• The piano

10. Χοροί

• The cha cha: Let's do the Cha Cha Cha!!!
• The Tango

11.
Κινηματογράφοι: The Rex
Θέατρα: The Old Vic
Μουσεία: The British Museum
Γκαλερί: The Tate Gallery
Ξενοδοχεία: The Ritz / The Ritz Hotel


Πλοία: The Love Boat


Εφημερίδες: The Independent / The Sun / The Times / The Washington Post
Περιοδικά: The Vogue (but: Time magazine)


Οργανισμοί: The European Union



12. Well known buildings

• the Empire State Building
• the Taj Mahal

13. Works of art:

• the Mona Lisa
• the Sunflowers

14:
Ποτάμια: The Thames
Θάλασσες: The Caspian Sea
Ωκεανοί: The Atlantic / The Atlantic Ocean
Κανάλια: The Panama Canal

Συστάδες νησιών: The Canary Islands / The Virgin Islands / The Bahamas
Οροσειρές: The Alps / The Himalaya(s)

Κράτη:

• που έχουν την λέξη: Kingdom, Republic, State: the United Kingdom / The Dominican Republic 
• που είναι στον πληθυντικό: The Philippines / The Netherlands

Noun forms of points of the compass: The Far West / The North Pole / The North of England

Ονόματα και ουσιαστικά με of: The Leaning Tower of Pisa  / The House of Carts / The University of Athens (but: Athens University / Harvard University) / The Queen of Denmark / The North of England / The twenty-first (day) of June /

15. The radio but not the medium of television.

• In the daytime I listen to the radio, but in the evenings I prefer to watch television.

16. With the following places:

the world,
the weather,
the city,
the shop, the bank, the library, the hospital, the post office,
the theatre, the cinema/movies, the circus, the ballet and the opera.
the coast, the seaside, the sea (but: to be at sea = to travel),
the countryside, the ground, the jungle,
the airport, the train station, the bus stop,
the doctor, the dentist.

17. Για χρήματα:

• The US dollar

18. Ιnstead of a possessive form when referring to parts of the body and items of clothing.

• She was hit on the head by a snowball (= a snowball hit her head)

• Joe grabbed the youth by the collar (= Joe grabbed the youth's collar).

 

 

 

19. For many larger organizations and institutions (not commercial enterprises), including those with initials that are normally spelled out.

• The Commonwealth, the Fed, the EU, the WHO, the BBC, the FDA, the IAEA, etc.

 Acronyms (initials read as whole words) are treated in the same way as regular names (proper nouns) and so do not require any article. If you are uncertain, please monitor usage in the media or consult a dictionary.

• OPEC, NATO, ICANN, etc.

 

 

 

20. In proper names consisting of noun(s) and/or adjective(s) + noun. 

• The Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building, the English Channel, the White House, the Royal Festival Hall, the Rolling Stones, the Berlin Philharmonic (Orchestra), the British Museum, the Titanic, etc.

21. To refer to a system or service:

• How long does it take on the train?
• I heard it on the radio.
• You should tell the police.

22. With adjectives like rich, poor, elderly, unemployed, young, sick, homeless, elderly, dead, blind, deaf, old, injured, disabled, handicapped, mentally ill to talk about groups of people:

• Life can be very hard for the poor.
• I think the rich should pay more taxes.
• She works for a group to help the disabled.

23. Seasons of the year

The
1. In its specifying function, that is, when the season is definite. 
As the winter passed, she saw more and more of him.     
2. After the prepositions during, for, through.
When I was a boy my parents took a place for the summer on the coast near Naples

Note After the prepositions after, before, in, till, until no article is used even if no definite season is meant. For example: After spring came summer -a good summer that year. I've never been here in the winter before in all these years. I haven't seen our garden in the summer for some years.

 

 

 The names of seasons are used without any article 
 1. When they have the most general meaning /like other abstract nouns/.For example: Although it was summer, the room was hot. Now it is winter.Note If the nouns under discussion are subjects of sentences and the predicate is expressed by the verb come, approach, set in, the definite article is possible too. For example: But as the winter approached, John began to feel desperate. 2. After the prepositions by, since. For example: You've known him long?- Since spring. 3. Commonly after the pronoun all. For example: Where have you been all summer?

       

The indefinite article is used with the nouns under discussion in its classifying function. In such cases they are most often found with descriptive attributes. For example: After spring came summer -a good summer that year. A dismal autumn dragged into winter.

Note If descriptive attributes are expressed by the adjectives early and late and the referents are not specified no article is used. For example: It was early spring with lambs being born.

If the referent is specified the definite article is used. For example: In the early summer 1929 I had my first stroke of luck.

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NO THE

1. When you talk about things in general. Όταν δεν μπορούμε να απαντάμε στο "ποιος" "ποια" "ποιο".

Plural countable nouns

• Cats make great pets ! (You’re not talking about one specific cat or one specific pet. You’re talking about all cats in general).
• Women  love it when men send them flowers!
• Houses are expensive in that neighbourhood.
• Pthink all Canadians speak English and French, but they’re wrong!
• Companies in Canada pay very high taxes.
• I love reading books.

 Uncountable nouns

• I love listening to music. (You enjoy music in general, not any specific song or kind of music).
• She’s afraid of heights so we couldn’t go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
• I love chocolate.
• Have you eaten lunch  yet?
• She’s a vegetarian. She doesn’t eat meat.

• How often do you take holidays? 

2. Holidays

• I got a beautiful new dress for Christmas.
• I got my mom a movie catalogue for Mother's Day.
• On St. Patrick’s Day everybody wears green.
• What are you doing on Valentine’s Day?

3.

Single lakes:

• Lake Ontario and Lake Huron are 2 of the Great Lakes.

Single mountains:

• Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan
• Mt. Rosa is part of the Alps mountain range (Mt. Rosa is one mountain. The Alps describe a group of mountains).

Single islands:

• Cuba
• Island
• Corfu

 

4. Companies

• Bill Gates founded Microsoft.
• McDonald’s has restaurants in 119 countries.
• I use Twitter and Facebook every day.

5. Universities

Her son graduated from Harvard.
She goes to Oxford.
He applied to Cambridge and Yale.

But: He has a master’s degree from the University of Toronto.

6. Languages

I am studying Russian
I speak French.
In Brazil people speak Portuguese.
I teach people how to speak English (but: the English Language).

7. Places, locations, streets

Ήπειρος: Europe
Κράτη: Canada
Πόλεις: London (but: The Hague)
Οδοί: Oxfort Street (but: the King's Road, the Fulham Road, the M1 ( motorway), the A19, The High Street, the London Road, The Mall, the Strand)
Πλατείες: Trafalgar Square
Γέφυρες: Tower Bridge  (but: the Bridge of Sighs, the Humber Bridge
Πάρκα: Hyde Park
Σταθμοί: Victoria Station (επειδή έχει κύριο όνομα και ό,τι έχει κύριο όνομα ανθρώπου ή μέρους δεν παίρνει the: Gatwick Airport, Windsor Castle)




8. Subjects you study at school

• math, geography, business, history, science

9. Sports, physical activities and "work":

• I love to go skiing in the winter.

• I play chess every day after school.

• He loves watching hockey on TV.

• Don't expect him to come. He's at work. 

• She tries to do yoga at least 3 times a week.

• My daughter really enjoys dancing

Colours:

• Purple is my favourite colour

Meals:

• What would you like for dinner?

10. Noun + number

• He’s staying at the Hilton hotel in room 22.
• The train to Paris leaves from platform 2
• My English class is in room 6 on the first floor (First is an adjective in this sentence, used to describe the floor)

11. Acronyms

a. If the acronym is pronounced as a word, don’t use the.

NATO ambassadors met to discuss the situation.

NATO is the acronym used for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO is pronounced as one word, /’neɪtoʊ/.

UNESCO was formed in 1946.

UNESCO is the acronym used for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO is pronounced as one word, /ju’nɛskoʊ/.

b. You need to use the before acronyms of organizations & countries when the letters are pronounced individually, not as a word.

The UN was created after the Second World War.

 

the EU

the US

the CIA

the FBI

12. bed, church, college, jail, hospital, court, school, university, όταν αναφερόμαστε σε αυτά για τον σκοπό που υπάρχουν.

• My neighbour went to hospital due to malaria but luckily is feeling better.  
• But: I went to the hospital to visit my neighbour. He has malaria* but luckily he is feeling a lot  better now. 

13.
* Με αρρώστιες ΔΕΝ χρησιμοποιούμε the
flue/the flu, measles/the measles, mumps/the mumps




14. Father / Mother / Home: όταν είναι ο δικός μας πατέρας, μητέρα, σπίτι.

• Father's at home

15. Μαγαζιά, εστιατόρια, μπαρ, παμπ, ξενοδοχεία, τράπεζες που έχουν το όνομα του ιδρυτή τους και τελειώνουν σε  -s ή -'s

• Lloyds Bank
• Harrods