Page 126 - New Grammar with a Smile 6

9. with decades and centuries. For example,
• He was born in the seventies.
• This painting belongs to the 1800s.

10. with countries that have plural names. For example,
• Ravi has gone to the Netherlands.
• Have you been to the Philippines?

11. with countries that have the words republic, kingdom or states in them.
For example,
• Rajiv lives in the United States.
• Jim is from the Republic of Ireland.

12. before proper adjectives, if they refer to a whole group of people or specify the
class of a particular item. For example,
• The Italians love their cheese.
• Some students enrolled in the French class.

13. with family names. For example, the Sharmas, the Raos, the Deys.

14. used before the names of musical instruments.
• Elton John plays the piano brilliantly.
• The sarod and the sitar are popular Indian musical instruments.

Omission of Articles

We do not use articles

1. before names of people and cities. For example,
• Lucknow is a historic city.
• I met Ankit at the metro station.
• Spain is in Europe.

2. before names of languages and nationalities. For example,
• She is learning German.
• Hindi is a very popular language.

3. before abstract ideas. For example,
• Let’s go out for dinner tonight.

4. before names of sports. For example,
• Let’s play football.

5. before names of subjects. For example,
• Ravi is good at maths.
6. when talking about something in general. For example,
• Ostriches cannot fly.

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