Do you know when you need to use ‘the’ in common phrases and place names? Enhance your knowledge with a lesson given below and the grammar explanation to guide you better.

Check out these examples to see when ‘the’ is and isn't used:

• I'm heading to the office.

• She drives to town every day.

• My friend is starting university next month.

• I toured the university campus yesterday.

• The Amazon River flows through South America.

Grammar explanation - Articles: 'the' or no article

Here are some ways we use articles in common phrases and place names.

1. Common phrases

We don’t typically use an article with expressions involving school, work, or home.

• go to sleep / be asleep

• go to class / start class / finish class

• come home / be home / get home / stay home

We also generally don’t use an article with college, church, jail, or church.

• start college / go to college / be at college

• go to church / be at church

• be sent to jail / go to jail / be in jail

• go to church / be in church

However, we use the when someone is visiting these places for another reason, not as a student, inmate, or worshipper.

• My daughter just started college. I went to the college for orientation.

• I used to visit the church often when I was a historian.

• I’m at the hospital now. My cousin had surgery.

2. Place names

We don’t generally use an article for continents, most countries, cities, towns, islands, lakes, and mountains. So, we say:

• North America, Australia, Antarctica

• Brazil, Sweden, Malaysia, New Zealand

• Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Nairobi

• Lake Baikal, Lake Michigan, Lake Malawi

• Mount Fuji, Mount McKinley, Mount Aconcagua

• Oxford University, Cambridge University, Stanford University

Some countries, however, are exceptions. For instance, countries with Republic or Kingdom in their names use the:

• the Dominican Republic, the United States, the Philippines

• the Netherlands, the Maldives

• Oceans, seas, mountain ranges, and rivers also take the:

• the Indian Ocean, the Arctic, the Red Sea

• the Rockies, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians

• the Danube, the Mississippi, the Thames

Universities with of in the title use the:

• the University of Sydney, the University of Oxford, the University of California

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