The Use of Articles with Proper Names

Proper nouns are individual names of specific people (Paul, Shakespeare), countries and cities (England, Paris), months and days of the week (August, Monday) and so forth. The main classes of proper nouns are: personal names, calendar items and geographical names: a) continents, b) countries, c) cities, d) rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, e) mountains, etc.

Names of Persons

1. Normally, a personal name, being the name of someone imagined as unique needs no article:

Anthony shrugged his shoulders.

Philip Lombard grinned.

Family relations with unique reference (Mother, Mummy, Mom, Father, Daddy, Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Grandmother, Grandfather) behave like proper nouns. They are treated as such by the members of the family and are usually written with the capital letter: “I’d like to see Mothe r,” said Emily. But: The father was the tallest in the family.

Personal names with nouns denoting titles, ranks or scientific degrees take no article: Lord Byron, Professor Higgins, Dr. Watson, President Lincoln, Colonel Brown. No article is used in combinations like Aunt Polly.

2. The definite articles is used:

a) with a family name in the plural denoting the whole family:

The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individually, but as a family.

We had dined with the Browns several times before.

b) when names of persons are modified by a particularizing attribute (a limiting of- phrase of a restrictive attributive clause):

This Pat wasn’t at all like the Pat of his memories.

This was not the Simon he had known so long.

c) when names of persons are modified by descriptive attributes indicating a permanent quality of the person in question, or by common nouns denoting a profession:

At that moment they were interrupted by the beautiful Mrs. Shobbe.

Have you ever heard about the painter Reynolds?

No article is used when names of persons are modified by the following adjectives: little, old, young, dear, poor, honest: Old Jolyon invited him in, but Young Jolyon shook his head.

d) when the speaker wishes to emphasize that the person named is the very one that everybody knows:

You say Shakespeare lived here. Do you mean the Shakespeare or somebody else?

“Who is this?” ―“Good heavens, don't you know? It is the great Einstein!”

3. The indefinite article is used:

a) to indicate that one member of the family is meant:

His mother was a Devereux: Lady Margaret Devereux.

There is a young American girl staying at the hotel. She is a Miss Pender.

b) to indicate a certain person, normally unknown to the hearer:

At a table in a corner the Colonel was introduced to a Mrs. Bilst and a Mrs. Peek.

I’m spending the day with a Miss Warren.

4. Proper names can be converted into common nouns indicating a) concrete objects or b) someone having characteristics of the person named. In this case they take the article according to the general rule:

Lanny has sold them an especially fine Goya.

Bert Smith had a Citroen, and he drove swiftly and well.

If you are a Napoleon, you will play the game of power; if you are a Leonardo, you will play for knowledge; the stakes hardly matter.

“I don’t pretend to be a great painter,” he said. “I’m not a Michael Angelo, no, but I have something.”

Geographical Names

1. Names of continents, countries, states, cities, and towns are normally used without articles. No articles is used either when they have premodifying adjectives as in: (North) America, (modern) France, (South) Africa, (old) England, (Central) Australia, (ancient) Rome, (Medieval) Europe.

2. Some names of countries, provinces and cities are traditionally used with the definite article: the Argentine (but Argentina), the Ukraine, the Lebanon, the United States of America, the Netherlands, the Crimea, the Hague, the Caucasus, the Ruhr.

3. Geographical names modified by particularizing attributes (a limiting of -phrase or a restrictive attributive clause) are used with the definite article:

Did he quite understand the England of today?

The Philadelphia into which Frank Cowperwood was born was a city of two hundred and fifty thousand and more.

This is the booming, rapidly expanding the London of the 1860’ s.

4. The indefinite article is found when a geographical name is modified by a descriptive attribute bringing out a certain aspect: You haven’t come to a very cheerful England.

5. Names of oceans, seas, rivers and lakes usually take the definite article: the Atlantic (Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific (Ocean, the Black Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Baltic (Sea), the Volga, the Thames, the Amazon, the Baikal, the Ontario, etc.

No article is used when names of lakes are preceded by the noun lake: Lake Baikal, Lake Ontario, Lake Ladoga.

6. Names of deserts are generally used with the definite article: the Sahara, the Gobi, the Kara-Kum.

7. Names of mountain chains and group of islands are used with the definite article: the Alps, the Andes, the Urals, The Bermudas, the Canaries, the West Indies, etc.

8. Names of mountain peaks and separate islands are used without articles: Elbrus, Everest, Mont Blane, Madagascar, Sicily.

9. Note the pattern “the + common noun + proper noun” in: the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Finland, the City of New York, the Bay Biskay, the Lake of Geneva, etc.

Names of universities where the first part is a place-name usually have two forms: the University of London (which is the official name) and London University. Universities names after a person have only the latter form: Yale University, Brown University.

Calendar Items

1. Names of months and days of the week generally take no article. May, April, September, Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Slowly, slowly, the hours passed. Wednesday dragged on, and it was Thursday.

2. Names of days are used with the indefinite article when one of many Mondays, Fridays, etc, is meant:

We met on Friday. (Мы встретились в пятницу.)

We met on a Friday. (Мы встретились однажды в пятницу).

This was May, a Friday, noon.

3. When names of months and days of the week are modified by a descriptive attribute, the indefinite article is used:

A cold May is a usual thing in these parts.

4. When the nouns on question are modified by a rescriptive attribute, the definite article is used:

“Are you really getting married?” ― “Yes. The first Saturday in May.”

Mrs. Trotwood came on the Friday when David was born.

Miscellaneous Proper Names