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Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, ___Saville Row, _____Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world.
Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. He was never seen at ___ Bank of England, nor in ___ City of London, not in ___ St James Park; no ships ever came up ___ Thames into __ London docks of which he was the owner; he had no public employment; he had never been entered at any of ___ Inns of Court, either at ___ Lincoln's Inn, or ___Gray's Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded in _ Court of Chancery, or in ___Houses of Parliament. He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known to take part in the sage deliberations of ____Royal Institution or ___ Artisan's Association, or ___Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital.
And this gentleman was about to travel around the world in eighty days. ___Times, ___Standard, ___Morning Post, and ___Daily News, and twenty other highly respectable newspapers scouted Mr. Fogg's project as madness; ____ Daily Telegraph alone hesitatingly supported him.
The steamer Mongolia, belonging to ___ Peninsular and Oriental Company was due at eleven o'clock a.m. on Wednesday, the 9th of October, at ___Suez. The Mongolia plied regularly between ___Brindisi and ___Bombay via ___ Suez Canal, and was one of the fastest steamers belonging to the company. English ships daily passed to and fro on the great canal, by which the old roundabout route from __England to ___India by ____ Cape of Good Hope was abridged by at least a half.
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[abridged from Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne]
EXERCISE 10. Draw a map of your own imaginary continent and suggest ideas for the items in the table, observing the rules for articles:
| 1 | Give your continent an exotic name. Add several islands in the periphery of the continent. | |
| 2 | Surround your continent with two or three oceans. | |
| 3 | Give names to at least four seas that wash the shores of the continent. | |
| 4 | Add two or three mountain chains and name them according to the climate, the danger level and a mineral that is mined there. Choose where the highest peak is and give it an impressive name. | |
| 5 | Add one large lake and two small ones. Give them appropriate names. | |
| 6 | Find some space between the two mountain ranges and make it a plateau and a desert in the southern part of the plateau. | |
| 7 | Draw three rivers following the pattern of the lakes and the mountain chains. Let one river sound exotic and one more river to sound boring. | |
| 8 | Find a place where the largest river flows into the ocean and make it a gulf. Give it a name that reflects the wealth of the place. | |
| 9 | Add forests and canyons to your liking. | |
| 10 | Divide the continent into three countries. Let one country be an empire, another a kingdom and the third a republic. | |
| 11 | Find good places for the capitals of the countries. The best places are at the coast of some sea, on the shore of a lake or at the bank of a river. Give names to the capitals. | |
| 12 | Add at least three smaller cities in every country. Think about their economy: the names should reflect if their main industry is mining, or agriculture, or some specific good. | |
| 13 | Connect the capitals with roads and give each road a name. These will be trading routes, but they may also represent a military danger. | |
| 14 | Think about one most beautiful landmark in every capital. It may be a palace, a tower, a castle, a museum, a garden or a park. | |
| 15 | Now that your continent is complete get ready to tell about its geography. |
Appendix 1. Articles with names of meals
Name of meals include breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, brunch, etc.
The zero article is used when names of meals are used in a general meaning “process of taking food”.
E.g. Breakfast will be at 7.
Will you stay for dinner?
The definite article is used when the noun denotes a party or a meeting, or its contents.
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E.g. At the last dinner the Sandfords announced that Helen was on the family way.
They thanked us for the breakfast.
The indefinite article is used when the noun is modified by a descriptive attribute.
E.g. We had a quiet, home-style dinner.
I’ll give you an authentic English breakfast.
Comp.: Let's meet for lunch.
A business lunch is part meal, part meeting.
When the business lunch ends in the wrong way, you still need to finish it politely.
The dinner is ready.
Wash your hands, everyone, dinner is ready.
Appendix 2. Articles with names of seasons
The definite article is used with names of seasons when the speaker refers to a particular period of time in the past, present or future.
E.g. The summer was hot and humid, so we played in the shade.
The indefinite article is used when the noun is modified by a descriptive attribute.
E.g. He passed a lazy summer reading books and watching TV shows in French.
The zero article is used:
1) when the noun is modified by the adjectives early, mid or late.
E.g. It was early summer.
2) in attributive of-phrases:
E.g. the warmth of spring, the dust of summer, three months of winter.
3) with predicative nouns:
E.g. It was summer and everything bloomed.
Either the zero or the definite article may be used in the following cases depending on the speaker’s intention to refer to a specific period or a type of climatic weather pattern:
1) in statements with these nouns as the subject:
E.g. (The) Winter is coming.
(The) Summer was over.
(The) Spring approached.
(The) Autumn passed.
2) in prepositional phrases with in, till, until, before, after:
E.g. The sun in (the) summer is dangerous.
Appendix 3. Articles with parts of the day
Parts of the day include the nouns day, night, morning, evening, noon, afternoon, midnight, dawn, twilight, dusk, sunrise, sunset, etc.
The definite article is used:
1) when the speaker uses the article in a limiting meaning (a particular day) or there is a limiting attribute.
E.g. The night was warm and peaceful.
He decided to spend the afternoon sunbathing.
2) if the speaker chooses to use the noun in the generic sense. This is a rare case.
E.g. He used to spend the morning on the porch.
I often sat up the night with the sick child.
The indefinite article is used when the noun is modified by a descriptive attribute and is used either as a predicative noun or with a preposition.
E.g. The baby was born on a bleak November night.
It will be a glorious sunny day and everyone will be delighted to see us.
On a hot August evening a stranger approached the mansion and knocked at the door.
The zero article is used:
1) with predicative nouns if there is no descriptive attribute.
E.g. It was evening when the colleagues completed the report and walked home.
It was nearly midnight and none of them had slept or eaten for a long time.
2) with predicative nouns modified by the adjectives early, late, broad and high.
E.g. It was early morning. It was late night. It was broad day. It was high noon.
3) when the noun is modified by the nouns Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, tomorrow and yesterday.
E.g. The duchess will set off for a trip tomorrow morning.
You can request her audience on Friday afternoon.
NB 1: There are set phrases where the article is motivated by tradition rather than the speaker’s choice:
a) the definite article: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, in the night.
E.g. I never met my Muse in the daytime.
Our dates were always in the night, when people couldn’t see her.
b) the zero article: at / by / past / before / after / till / until + the zero article + the noun.
E.g. At night, when it gets dark, and I feel tired and sleepy, I put on my pajamas and go to bed.
The artist completed the masterpiece by midnight; he always worked better after sunset.
NB 2: mind the following set phrases:
| all day all day long all through the day | all night all night through all through the night | day after day night after night from morning till night | to do smth day and night in the dead of the night late at night but early in the morning |
Appendix 4. Articles with names of diseases.
Uncountable names of diseases are typically preceded by the zero article, either used by the speaker in a general sense or to nominate the disease.
E.g. Lung cancer is difficult to treat but it can be easily prevented.
Immobilized patients often die of pneumonia.
Hector had asthma and coped with it.
Cholera and plague destroyed whole cities.
The count was diagnosed with diabetes and had to cut down his sugar intake.
Short-term effects of a concussion include memory loss, depression and anxiety.
The definite article may be used:
1) in a clear back reference to a specific case: Alfred was never the same person after the depression.
2) if the speaker refers to an epidemic: I’ve got the flu. In 1666 the Great Fire of London put an end to the plague, as it killed most of the rats that carried the infection.
3) if there is a limiting attribute: The chicken pox brought by the colonizers killed millions of aboriginal people who had no immunity to it.
Note 1. The following nouns are class nouns; an allergy, a stroke, a heart attack, a cold,
E.g. I discovered recently that I have an allergy to milk.
Sudden numbness of your face may be a sign that you may be having a stroke.
Note 2. Traumas are class nouns: a concussion, a fracture, a bruise, a frostbite, a burn, a fracture, a wound.
E.g. The body had a fresh bruise to the right side of the head unrelated to the gunshot wound.
Note 3. The words “fever”, “disability” “addiction”, and “ache” behave as typical abstract uncountable nouns, but are often used in the meaning “a case of” or “a kind of”.
E.g. The reason he was absent was that he had a severe headache. Headache is a common symptom.
Encephalitis is a disease that can cause disability or death. We can’t easily define what a disability is.
He is still running a high fever. Initial symptoms of food poisoning include high fever and stomachache.
Appendix 5. Articles with common set phrases
The nouns school, college, church, prison, jail, camp, court, bed, table, market, town may be used with the zero article when they lose their concrete meaning and denote the activity for which the place is intended. In this case they may be considered as set phrases.
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E.g. The kids go to school early. But: my father went to a fancy school in the downtown.
Applying to college is so confusing.
It’s lunch time, let’s sit down to table.
Clark was taken to hospital.
Jonah spent a night in hospital.
I will take you to court if you persist in insulting me.
We thought he would be out of town that week.
You will be sent to prison when you are caught.
The electricity was cut off and everyone went to bed early.
The family went to church every Saturday.
Please find below the list of set phrases for independent research with a dictionary. If several phrases are listed in the same line that means that you should find the difference between them.
| # | The set phrase | The example sentence | The meaning |
| 1 | by train by boat by car by train | ||
| 2 | by air by post by phone by radio | ||
| 3 | by accident by mistake by chance | ||
| 4 | on foot on tiptoe | ||
| 5 | on board | ||
| 6 | at sea to sea by sea | ||
| 7 | at hand on hand off hand by hand | ||
| 8 | on leave on business on holiday | ||
| 9 | in detail in memory of in honor of | ||
| 10 | on condition that | ||
| 11 | to take smth to heart | ||
| 12 | under the influence of smth | ||
| 13 | under the pretence of smth | ||
| 14 | to play the piano on the spot | ||
| 15 | on the one hand on the other hand | ||
| 16 | to be out of the question | ||
| 17 | in the original | ||
| 18 | on the whole | ||
| 19 | to be on the safe side | ||
| 20 | the other day | ||
| 21 | in a hurry | ||
| 22 | as a result | ||
| 23 | to be at a loss | ||
| 24 | at a glance | ||
| 25 | in a low voice in a loud voice in a quiet voice | ||
| 26 | to take a fancy to smth | ||
| 27 | to have a mind to do smth | ||
| 28 | a great many a great deal | ||
| 29 | little a little few a few | ||
| 30 | a lot of smth |
Recommended sources
1. Aarts, Bas. Oxford modern English grammar. Oxford University Press, 2011.
2. Aijmer, Karin, and Bengt Altenberg. English corpus linguistics. Routledge, 2014.
3. Beal, Joan C. English in modern times. Routledge, 2014.
4. Berry, Roger. English grammar: a resource book for students. Routledge, 2018.
5. Biber, Douglas, et al. Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Longman, 1999.
6. Gisborne, Nikolas, and Amanda Patten. "Construction grammar and grammaticalization." The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization. 2011.
7. Hawkins, John A. Definiteness and indefiniteness: A study in reference and grammaticality prediction. Routledge, 2015.
8. Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel, and Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre, eds. The handbook of historical sociolinguistics. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
9. Jespersen, Otto. A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles: Volume 3. Routledge, 2013.
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10. Jones, Christian, and Daniel Waller. Corpus linguistics for grammar: A guide for research. Routledge, 2015.
11. Nevalainen, Terttu, and Elizabeth Closs Traugott, eds. The Oxford handbook of the history of English. Oxford University Press, 2016.
12. Quirk, Randolph. Grammatical and lexical variance in English. Routledge, 2014.
13. Sweet, Henry. A new English grammar. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
