| Uses
| Examples
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| 1. Before plural nouns:
| My friends are students.
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| 2. Before abstract nouns except when they are used in a particular sense:
| Men fear death.
but: The death of the Prime Minister left his party without a leader.
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| 3. After a noun in the possessive case, or a possessive adjective:
| the boy’s uncle = the uncle of the boy
It is my (blue) book = The (blue) book is mine.
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| 4. Before names of meals:
| The Scots have porridge for breakfast.
but: The wedding breakfast was held in her father’s house.
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| 5. Before names of games:
| He plays golf.
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| 6. Before parts of the body and articles of clothing, as these normally prefer a possessive adjective:
| Raise your right hand.
He took off his coat.
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| 7. When home is used alone, i.e. is not preceded or followed by a descriptive word or phrase:
| He is at home. He went home.
I arrived home after dark.
I sent him home.
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| 8. Before the nouns: bed, church, court, hospital, prison, school/college/university, when these places are visited or used for their primary purpose. We can be/get back from school/college/university. We can leave school, leave hospital, be released from prison.
But: When these places are visited or used for other reasonsthe is necessary.
| We go: to bed to sleep; to church to pray; to court as litigants; to hospital as patients; to prison as prisoners; to school/college/university to study; similarly we can be: in bed, sleeping or resting; at church as worshippers; in hospital as patients; at school as students.
Sometimes he goes to the prison to give lectures.
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| 9. work = place of work.
| He is at work.
He’s on his way to work.
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| 10. We go to sea as sailors. To be at sea = to be on a voyage (as passengers or crew). But to go to or be at the sea = to go to or be at the seaside. We can also live by/ near the sea.
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