Proper Nouns without THE
Proper Nouns with THE | Proper Nouns Quiz

Proper Nouns without THE

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

first namesAsif (not *the Asif)
Asifa
surnamesQureshi
Qurash
full namesAsif Qureshi
 
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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:

shopsHarrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys
banksBarclays Bank
hotels, restaurantsSteve's _____, Joe's Cafe, McDonalds
churches, cathedralsSt John's Church, St Peter's Cathedral

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

townsWashington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo
states, regionsTexas, Kent, Eastern Europe
countriesEngland, Italy, Brazil
continentsAsia, North America
islandsCorsica
mountainsEverest

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

statesthe United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA
kingdomthe United Kingdom, the UK
republicthe French Republic

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

the president, the kingPresident ____ (not *the President ____)
the captain, the detectiveCaptain Kirk, Detective Colombo
the doctor, the professorDoctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle
my uncle, your auntUncle 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 lakeLake Victoria
the mountMount 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 etcOxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue
squares etcTrafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus
parks etcCentral 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":

peopleKennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul's Cathedral
places________ Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle

Proper Nouns with THE »

Proper Nouns with THE | Proper Nouns Quiz

Proper Nouns with THE

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

Statesthe _________/the ______
Kingdomthe _____/the ____
Republicthe French Republic

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

canalsthe Suez Canal
riversthe River Nile, the Nile
seasthe Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceansthe Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

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

people (families, for example)the _____s
_______the Philippines, the _____ ______
island groupsthe Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain rangesthe Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurantsthe Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banksthe National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatresthe Royal ______, the ABC ______
museumsthe British Museum, the National Gallery
buildingsthe White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapersthe Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post
organisationsthe United Nations, the BBC, the _____

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":