UNIVERSITATEA ‘ANDREI ŞAGUNA’
FACULTATEA DE ŞTIINŢE ECONOMICE
SPECIALIZAREA: FINANTE BANCI
AN II SEMESTRUL I

REFERAT LIMBA ENGLEZĂ

ADOCHITEI SIMONA DORINA

2012

CONTENTS

Definite Articles ………………………………………………1
Indefinite Articles …………………………………………….3
Zero Articles …………………………………………………..4

Definite Articles

The definte article – the

We use THE: when there is only one of something: What is the longest river in the world?
-“the” is used before “same” (the same)
Your pullover is the same colour as mine.
These two photographs are the same.
-go to the cinema, to the theatre
I often go to the cinema but I haven’t been to the theatre for ages.
When we say THE CINEMA/THE THEATRE < we do not necessarily mean one particular cinema or theatre.

BREAKFAST/LUNCH/DINNER

We do not normally use “the” with the names of meals ..
What did you have for breakfast?
We had lunch in a very nice restaurant.
What time is dinner?

BED WORK HOME

It’s time to go to bed now.
I sat down on the bed.

Go to work/be at work/ start work/finish work

Ann didn’t go to work yesterday.

THE+ ADJECTIVE

We use THE+ adjective (without a noun) to talk about groups of people, especially:

the young the old the elderly the rich the poor the unemployed the homeless the sick the disabled the injured the dead
Do you think the rich should pay more taxes to help the poor?
The homeless need more help from the government.

These expressions are always plural in meaning; you cannot say “a young” or “an unemployed”; the correct is “a young woman”, “an unemployed woman”

We do not use “the” with names of people or places:

Continents: Africa, Europe, South America
Countries: France, Japan, Switzerland
States, regions: Texas, Cornwall, Central Europe
Islands: Corsica, Sicily, Bermuda

Cities, towns: Cairo, Madrid
Mountains: Everest, Etna, Kilimanjaro

But we use THE in names with “Republic”, “Kingdom”, “States”
The United States of America
The United Kingdom
The Dominican Republic

We use THE with the names of oceans, seas, rivers and canals

The Atlantic the Mediterranean the Red Sea
The Indian Ocean the Channel the Rhine

We use THE with plural names of people and places:

People: the Taylors, the Johnsons
Countries: the Netherlands, the Phillipines, the United States
Groups of islands: the Canaries, the Bahamas the British Isles
Mountain ranges: the Rocky mountains, the Andes, the Alps

The definite article the is the same for all genders in singular and in plural. the boy, the girl, the cat, the computers If the following word begins with a vowel, we speak [[pic] ], if the following word begins with a consonant, we speak [[pic] ].

| [[pic] ] |[[pic] ] |
|the following word starts with a spoken consonant |the following word starts with a spoken vowel |
|the girl |the English girl |
|the book |the blue book |
|the school |the old school |
|the unit |the uncle |
|Here a [[pic] ] is pronounced at the beginning of the word. |Here a [[pic] ] is pronounced at the beginning of the word. |

We have listed some examples in the following table. There you can see when we use the definite article and when we don't.

|without the definite article |with the definite article |
|general words (indefinite) |general words (definite) |
|Life is too short. |I've read a book on the life of Bill Clinton. |
|I like flowers. |I like the flowers in your garden. |
|names of persons on the singular, relatives |family names in the plural |
|Peter and John live in London. |The Smiths live in Chicago. |
|Aunt Mary lives in Los Angeles. | |
|public buildings, institutions, means of transport (indefinite) |public buildings, institutions, means of transport (definite) |
|Mandy doesn't like school. |The school that Mandy goes to is old. |
|We go to school by bus. |The bus to Dresden leaves at 7.40. |
|Some people go to church on Sundays. |The round church in Klingenthal is famous. |
|names of countries in the singular; summits of mountains; continents;|names of countries in the plural; mountain ranges; regions |
|towns | |
|Germany, France; |the United States of America, the Netherlands; the Highlands, the Rocky |
|Mount Whitney, Mount McKinley; |Mountains, the Alps; the Middle East, the west of Australia |
|Africa, Europe; | |
|Cairo, New York | |
|single islands |groups of islands |
|Corfu, Bermuda, Sicily |the Bahamas, the British Isles, the Canaries |
|parks; lakes; streets |name with of-phrase; oceans; seas; rivers |
|Central Park, Hyde Park; |the Statue of Liberty, the Tower (of London), the Isle of Wight; |
|Lake Michigan, Loch Ness; |the Atlantic (Ocean); |
|42nd Street, Oxford Street |the Mediterranean (Sea); |
| |the Nile, the Rhine, the Suez Canal |
|months, days of the week (indefinite) |months, days of the week (definite) |
|The weekend is over on Monday morning. |I always remember the Monday when I had an accident. |
|July and August are the most popular months for holidays. |The August of 2001 was hot and dry. |

We use the seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter) with or without the definite article.

in summer or in the summer

The American English word for autum >fall< is always used with the definte article.

Sometimes we use the article and sometimes we do not. It often depends on the context. Watch the following example:

The student goes to school. The mother goes to the school.

In the first sentence we do not use the definite article, in the second we do. The student goes to school for its primary purpose, so we do not use the article.

The mother might talk to a teacher, for example. She visits the school for a different reason. That's why we use the definite article in the second sentence.

Indefinite Articles

The indefinite article – a/an

The indefinte article is the a is the same for all genders. a boy, a girl, a cat
The indefinte article has no plural form. a boy - boys We use an if the following word starts with a vowel.

|the following word starts with a consonant |the following word starts with a vowel |
|a boy |an aunt |
|a school |an old school |
|a girl |an American girl |

Mind the pronunciation of the following word.

|a unit |an uncle |
|This u sounds like a consonant, so we use a. |This u sounds like a vowel, so we use an. |

1 Use of the indefinite article a/an

- before phrases of time and measurements (per week/weekly)

|We have English 4 times a week. |
|I go on holiday twice a year. |
|Our car can do 220 kilometres an hour. |
|Tomatoes are $2 a kilo. |

- before phrases of jobs

|My father is a car mechanic. |

- with a noun complement

|He is a good boy. |

- before phrases of nationality

|Bruce Springsteen is an American. |

- half/quite

|We need half a pound of sugar. |
|This is quite a good story. |

Zero Article

We use the term zero article when we do not use a definite or indefinite article.

The zero article with proper names

Turner is my favourite painter.

But if we mean a painting by Turner, we use the indefinite article a:

A Turner hangs in his bedroom.

We do not use THE with names of most streets/roads/squares/parks:

Union Street Fifth Avenue
Blackrock Road Broadway
Hyde Park
Piccadilly Circus
Waterloo Bridge

The zero article with names of places and institutions

Many names especially, names of institutions and buildings are two words:
Kennedy Airport Cambridge University

The first word is usually the name of a person or place. We do not usually use THE with names like these:

Victoria Station
Westminster Abbey
Edinburgh Castle
Buckingham Castle
London Zoo
Canterbury Cathedral

Most other names have THE:

THE+ADJECTIVE +NOUN NAME

The Hilton Hotel
The National Hotel
The Sahara Desert
The Atlantic Ocean

These places usually have names with THE:

Hotels, restaurants, pubs, theatres, cinemas, mseums, galleries, other buildings, oceans, seas, canals, newspapers, organizations

The Station Hotel
The Bombay Restaurant
The Palace Theatre
The British Museum
The Empire State Building
The Washington Post
The Suez Canal
The European Community

Sometimes the name is only THE+NOUN:
The Vatican (in Rome)
The Sun (British Newspaper)

The zero article with names of pubs, restaurants etc. ending in 'S

Many shops, restaurants, hotels, banks are named after the people who started them. These names end in”-S” “ `S”. We do not use “THE” with these names:

Lloyds Bank
Mc Donalds
Harrods

Churches are often named after saints:

St. John’s Church
St. Paul’s Cathedral

Names of companies, airlines are usually without “THE”:
Fiat
Sony
Kodak
British Airways

The zero article with names of days, months, seasons and holidays

Monday March summer Halloween Labour Day

The zero article with names of sports, games and activities

I love swimming.
Rummy is definitely much more difficult than solitaire.
She suggested playing Activity.

The zero article with geographical names

1 Continents

Asia
America
Europe
Australia
Africa

But: the Arctic the Antarctic the Americas (North and South America)

2 Names of countries

Most country names do not take an article (Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal), but:

the United States of America (the USA) the United Kingdom (the UK)

3 Lakes

Lake Geneva
Lake Balaton
Lake Michigan
Lake Lopnor
Loch Ness

Mountain peaks
Mount Washington
Twin Peaks
Denali
(Mount) Everest
K2

But:

the Chomolungma the Matterhorn

Most cities
Szeged
Beijing
Bujumbura
Budapest
New York

But:

the Hague the Vatican

The zero article with prepositional phrases

in charge in tears in danger at war by heart beyond control on time by car However, if we mean a specific kind of car, control, war etc. we use an article:

We drove in a red car.
Hurricanes are beyond the control of governments.
He got wounded in the second world war.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eastwood, John, Oxford Practice Grammar, Oxford University Press, London, 2007 Vasiliu, Anamaria, Vasiliu, Porfira, Gramatica limbii engleze- teorie, exerciţii,rezolvări- Carminis, Piteşti,2009 www.grammaring.com/the-zero-article-with-certain-nouns