Roxularium - форум, посвящённый Ричарду Роксбургу и фильму Ван Хельсинг

We use the when there is only one of something:
What is the longest river in the world? (there is only one longest river)
The earth goes round the sun and the moon goes round the earth.
Have you ever crossed the equator?
I’m going away at the end of this month.

Don’t forget the:
Paris is the capital of France. (not Paris is capital of…)

But we use a/an to say what kind of thing something is. Compare the and a:
The sun is a star.
The hotel we stayed at was a very nice hotel.

We say: the sky, the sea, the ground, the country, the environment.
We looked up at all the stars in the sky. (not in sky)
Would you like to live in the country? (not in a town)
We must do more to protect the environment.

But we say space (without the) when we mean “space in the universe”. Compare:
There are millions of stars in space. (not in the space)
I tried to park my car, but the space was too small.

We use the before same (the same):
Your pullover is the same colour as mine. (not the same colour)
“Are these keys the same?” “No, they’re different.”

We say: (go to) the cinema, the theatre.
I go to the cinema a lot, but I haven’t been to the theatre for ages.
When we say the cinema/the theatre, we don’t necessarily mean a specific cinema or theatre.

We usually say the radio, but television (without the). Compare:
I listen to the radio a lot.
But
I watched television a lot.
We heard the news on the radio.
But.
We watched the news on television.

The television=the television set:
Can you turn off the television, please?

We don’t normally use the with the names of meals (breakfast, lunch etc.):
What did you have for breakfast?
We had lunch in a very nice restaurant.
What time is dinner?

But we use a if there is an adjective before breakfast, lunch etc.:
We had a very nice lunch. (not We had very nice lunch)

We don’t use the before noun+number. For example, we say:
Our train leaves from Platform 5. (not the Platform 5)
(in a shop) Have you got these shoes in size 43? (not the size 43)

In the same way, we say: Room 126 (in a hotel), page 29 (of a book), question 3 (in an exam), Gate 10 (at an airport) etc.

Exercises:
1)Where did you have___lunch?
2)We went to___restaurant.
3)Did you have___nice holiday?
4)Yes, it was___best holiday I’ve ever had.
5)Where’s___nearest shop?
6)There’s on at___end of this street.
7)Do you often listen to___radio.
8)I haven’t been to___cinema for ages.
9)I lay down on___ground and looked up at___sky.
10)Sarah spend most of her free time watching___television.
11)Lisa and I arrived at___same time.
12)Have you had___dinner yet.
13) You’ll find___information you need at___top of___page 15.
14)What’s___capital city of Canada?