Means of transport

You can use the definite article with words like {train' or 'bus' when you are referring to a whole transport system, rather than to an individual train or bus.

She caught the plane back to New York.

How long does it take on the train?

In these examples, the speaker does not mean one particular plane or train; there may be several possibilities. The speaker is naming the form or system of transport. Here is a list of words in this category: boat, hovercraft, bus, plane, ferry, subway (Am), train, tram, tube (Br), underground (Br).

'Boat' and 'ferry' are used in this way but not 'ship'.

...the vast new Lenin Bridge over the Volga which had replaced the ferry. -

'Taxi', 'car' and 'bicycle' are not used in this way, because they do not offer a systematic means of transport; if you say to someone 'Take the car', you must be referring to a particular car. With 'underground', 'tube', and 'subway', you can use the definite article to refer not only to the form of transport, but also to the location.

I am alone in the underground waiting for a train.

All these words can be used after 'by' without an article to describe the form of transport used, for example: 'by bus', 'by train', 'by plane'.

I don't often travel by bus.

He got himself back to London the quickest way, by train and plane.

You can also use the following words after 'by' without an article. air, cab, road, taxi, bicycle, car, sea, bike, rail, ship.

Forms of entertainment

When you are talking about someone going to enjoy a form of entertainment you use the definite article with the word for the form of entertainment. Words like this are: 'cinema' (Am 'movies'), 'theatre', 'opera', 'ballet'.

Let's go to the movies.

You have seen things. You have been to the opera, the ballet, the theatre.

Here we are not thinking of a particular performance of an opera or ballet, or a particular theatre building, but just of the form of entertainment.

'Cinema', 'theatre', 'opera', and 'ballet', as well as 'dance', 'film', and 'television', can be used as uncount nouns without an article to refer to the art form.

...supreme artists of dance and theatre.

...a very fine piece of cinema.

Television can be an art medium.