Unit 05: The and no-The

Proper Nouns without THE

We do not use “the” with names of people. For example:

first names : Bill (not *the Bill) , Hilary
surnames : Clinton , Gates
full names : Hilary Gates

If the full (registered) name of a company starts with "The", then we use "The" if we use the full name, for example:
The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd

We do not normally use “the” with names of companies. For example:

Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub.com
General Motors, Air France, British Airways
Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd

We do not normally use “the” for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -’s or -s). For example:

shops : Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys
banks : Barclays Bank
hotels, restaurants : Steve’s Hotel, Joe’s Café, McDonalds
churches, cathedrals : St John’s Church, St Peter’s Cathedral

We do not normally use “the” with names of places. For example:

towns : Washington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo
states, regions : Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe
countries : England, Italy, Brazil
continents : Asia, Europe, North America
islands : Corsica
mountains : Everest

Exception! If a country name includes “States”, “Kingdom”, “Republic” etc, we use “the”:

states , the United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA
kingdom , the United Kingdom, the UK
republic , the French Republic

We do not use “the” with “President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name”:

the president, the king : President Bush (not *the President Bush)
the captain, the detective : Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo
the doctor, the professor : Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle
my uncle, your aunt : Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill
Mr Gates (not *the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton, Miss Black

Look at these example sentences:

I wanted to speak to the doctor.
I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.
Who was the president before President Kennedy?

We do not use “the” with “Lake/Mount + Name”:

the lake , Lake Victoria
the mount , Mount Everest

Look at this example sentence:

We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic view across the lake.

We do not normally use “the” for roads, streets, squares, parks etc:

streets, etc : Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue
squares ,etc : Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus
parks, etc : Central Park, Kew Gardens

Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use “the”:

people : Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral
places : Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle


Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include “States”, “Kingdom”, “Republic” etc:

States : the United States of America/the USA
Kingdom :the United Kingdom/the UK
Republic : the French Republic

We normally use “the” for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:

canals : the Suez Canal
rivers : the River Nile, the Nile
seas : the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceans : the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

We normally use “the” for plural names of people and places:

people (families, for example) : the Clintons
countries : the Philippines, the United States
island groups : the Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain ranges : the Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill’s birthday.
Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies.
Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.

We normally use “the” with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurants :the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banks : the National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatres : the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema
museums : the British Museum, the National Gallery
buildings : the White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapers : the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post
organisations : the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use “the” for names made with “…of…”:

the Tower of London
the Gulf of Siam
the Tropic of Cancer
the London School of Economics
the Bank of France
the Statue of Liberty

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Thanks for the information