Names of buildings and institutions

There is no obvious rule for names of buildings and institutions; they are dealt with group by group in the following pages.

Note that on maps the definite article is usually not shown.

· Hotels, restaurants and pubs have the definite article, for example: the Ritz, the Hilton, the Royal Oak.

But restaurants whose name is the possessive form of a person's name have no definite article: Luigi's.

· Theatres and cinemas have the definite article, for example: the Odeon, the Globe.

Note that the definite article may distinguish a theatre from the street it is in: the Whitehall (a theatre), Whitehall (a street).

Museums and galleries, for example: the British Museum, the National Gallery.

· Stations and airports typically have no article, for example: Heathrow (Airport), Euston (Station).

· Schools, colleges and universities typically have no article, for example: Manchester Grammar School, Dartmouth College, Cambridge University, Kent State University.

There are many universities which are referred to with expressions including 'of', and these have the definite article, for example: the University of Wales; but if abbreviated there is no article: UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles). Many universities have both possibilities: London University, the University of London (which is the official name).

· Churches, cathedrals and abbeys typically have no article, for example: St Peter's, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey.

But with abbeys named after religious orders, and with those followed by 'of', there is a definite article: the Dominican Abbey, the Abbey of Cluny.

Note: When you refer back to a particular building, you can use the definite article in front of the word for the building, which keeps its capital letter.

And so round to the north side of the Cathedral.

· Names of streets and roads tend to have no article, for example: Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road, Park Lane, Broadway, Pennsylvania Avenue.

Turn right off Broadway into Caxton Street.

It lies between Leicester Square on the south and Oxford Street on the north.

There are a number of exceptions to this, for example: the High Street (in any town), and two streets in London: the Mall, the Strand. Certain roads can have the definite article or no article: (the) Edgware Road, (the) Old Kent Road.

· Highways and motorways tend to have the definite article, for example: the AI, the Ml, the New Jersey Turnpike.

· Names of foreign streets and squares tend to keep the definite article if there is one in the original language: the Via Veneto, the Boulevard St Michel.

Note: When street names are parts of addresses, the definite article sometimes can and sometimes must be left out: '24 (the) High Street', '104Edgware Road'. The definite article is not used in street signs.

· Names of ships, trains, and spacecraft usually have the definite article: the Titanic, the Queen Elizabeth.

The names of smaller boats usually have no article.

Established train services have the definite article: the Orient Express.

Spacecraft tend to have no article: Challenger, Apollo.

· Names of sporting events usually have the definite article: the Superbowl, the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the Cup Final, the Boat Race, the Grand National, the British Open, and so on.

You can pick out one particular case of such an event by using the definite or indefinite article: 'I've never been to a Cup Final'.

Names which are taken from the place where the event occurs do not have the definite article: Wimbledon (for tennis), Ascot and Epsom (for horse-racing events), Henley (for rowing).

· Names of festivals have no article: Christmas, Easter, Lent, Carnival, Corpus Christi, Ramadan, Midsummer's Day, Mother's Day, New Year's Day, St Valentine's Day, and so on. (But note the 4th of July.)

But you can pick out one particular event by using the definite or indefinite article.

...the rare luxury a Christmas at home.

· Names of organizations

Some names of organizations have the definite article, and some have no article.

Names of well-known organizations typically have the definite article, and they keep it when they are abbreviated: the United Nations (the UN),the BBC, the Labour Party, the FBI, the EC.

If an abbreviation is pronounced as a word, then there is no article. So 'the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' is usually called 'OPEC' /aupek/. Other examples are 'NATO' /neitәu/ and 'UNICEF' /ju:nisef/.

Some names of charities do not have the definite article: Oxfam, Christian Aid, Mencap.

You usually refer to businesses and chains of shops with no article:General Motors, Sony, Woolworths, Shell, Nissan, Singapore Airlines.

This applies even when an abbreviation is used which is not pronounced as a word: BP /bi:pi:/ (British Petroleum), KLM, and so on.

...corporations like IBM, RCA and Xerox.

However, if a word like 'company' is used, then the definite article is used: the Bell Telephone Company. You can find alternatives like: 'General Electric' and 'GEC' as well as 'the General Electric Company'.

· Names of newspapers and periodicals

Names of newspapers published in English tend to have the definite article, including almost all the British national daily newspapers: the Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sun, the Star; the one exception is: Today.

You do not use the with the names of foreign newspapers: Pravda, Le Monde, Der Spiegel.

Names of periodicals such as magazines and journals have either the definite article or no article: Punch, Newsweek, ELT Journal, the Journal of American Psychology, the Spectator.

· Names of political institutions

The names of most political or government bodies and institutions have the definite article: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Department of Trade and Industry, the State Department, the Cabinet.

This is true also of foreign institutions, translated or not: the Bundestag, the Supreme Court, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior, and so on.

Exceptions to this are: Parliament (but the Houses of Parliament), Congress, and names of councils: Kent County Council, Leeds City Council.

...when I was elected to Parliament in 1964.

He attended Congress only nine times.

Names of locations and buildings that are used to refer metaphorically to political institutions stay as they are: Whitehall,.Westminster, Downing Street, Washington, the Kremlin.

But the final decision may be made in the Kremlin.

· Names of musical groups

Names of musical groups can have either no article or the definite article: Queen, the Beatles, Dire Straits, the Supremes, Fleetwood Mac. The choice of name depends on the group, and so it is possible to deliberately break ordinary rules of article usage for stylistic reasons. However, most plurals still have the definite article, for example: the Rolling Stones, the Shadows, the Eurythmics, the Beatles.

· Personal names

The names of people usually have no article: John Smith, Mary Jones. This is true no matter how someone's name is given: Smith, J. Smith, John F. Smith, Mr Smith, Dr Smith, Dr J.F. Smith, Captain Smith, Lord Smith, and so on.

There are a number of situations where the definite article is necessary. It is used when you are referring to a family by making the name plural: the Wilsons, the Masons.

You can stress the definite article with names of people to mean someone famous: 'I met Paul McCartney the other day.' 'You mean the Paul McCartney?'

The definite article is used in certain titles: the Reverend John Collins, the Prince of Wales (but Prince Charles), the Duke of Westminster, the Countess of Harewood. It is also used in the descriptive names of some monarchs: William the Conqueror, Ivan the Terrible, Alfred the Great.

The indefinite article can be used with personal names, where it means something like 'a certain', or 'someone called...'.

...the librarian, a Mrs Willard.

I explained that a Mr George Cole, with whom I was currently acting, had damaged it.

The speaker or writer is suggesting that the reader or listener does not know the person.

The indefinite article can also be used with a family name to pick out one member.