When to use ‘the’ with country names (+ lakes, rivers, and more)

Below is a list of countries which use the definite article. In English, we use "the" if a country has a political title in its name, or if it refers a group of islands. There are also countries, such as the Netherlands, which people commonly attach the definite article to even though it does not follow the two rules above.

For bodies of water, we frequently add the definite article to rivers, oceans, and seas.

For single mountains, we don’t typically add the definite article. However, for groups of mountains, we do.

You’ll find many examples of these rules below, as well as a list of other geographical features which use the definite article. You can do an exercise  HERE  

Countries

• the Bahamas
• the Cayman Islands
• the Central African Republic
• the Channel Islands
• the Comoros
• the Czech Republic
• the Dominican Republic
• the Falkland Islands
• the Gambia
• the Isle of Man
• the Ivory Coast
• the Leeward Islands
• the Maldives (the Maldive Islands)
• the Marshall Islands
• the Netherlands
• the Netherlands Antilles
• the Philippines
• the Solomon Islands
• the Turks and Caicos Islands
• the United Arab Emirates
• the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
• the United States (of America)
• the Virgin Islands

Rivers

• the Amazon
• the Colorado
• the Columbia
• the Danube
• the Don
• the Euphrates
• the Ganges
• the Huang
• the Hudson
• the Indus
• the Jordan
• the Lena
• the Mackenzie
• the Mekong
• the Mississippi
• the Missouri
• the Niger
• the Nile
• the Ob
• the Ohio
• the Orinoco
• the Po
• the Rhine
• the Rhone
• the Rio Grande
• the St. Lawrence
• the Seine
• the Tagus
• the Thames
• the Tiber
• the Tigris
• the Volga
• the Yangtze

Gulfs, Oceans, Seas, Straits

• the Adriatic Sea
• the Aegean Sea
• the Arabian Sea
• the Arctic Ocean
• the Atlantic (Ocean)
• the Baltic (Sea)
• the Black Sea
• the Caribbean (Sea)
• the Caspian (Sea)
• the Coral Sea
• the Gulf of Aden
• the Gulf of Mexico
• the Gulf of Oman

Mountain Ranges

• the Alps
• the Andes
• the Appalachians
• the Atlas Mountains
• the Caucasus
• the Himalayas
• the Pyrenees
• the Rockies (the Rocky Mountains)
• the Urals

Other Features

• the equator
• the Far East
• the Gobi (desert)
• the Kalahari (desert)
• the Middle East
• the Near East
• the North Pole
• the Occident
• the Orient
• the Panama Canal
• the Sahara (desert)
• the South Pole
• the Suez Canal
• the Tropic of Cancer
• the Tropic of Capricorn

ONLINE RESOURCES

Study Tip – Beginner English Online Resources

by MELANIE on DECEMBER 10, 2012

(Photo by Paojus)

If you are a beginner, if you know someone who is a beginner, or if you teach beginners, here are some free resources that may be useful to you. All of these resources are in English.

 Videos

Hungry for English [American]
“We want you to learn to speak English in the same way that we all learned to speak our native languages as babies – by hearing it instead of reading it.”

JenniferESL [American]
“English for Beginners! No scripts. No actors. Real lessons. Real learning.”
Jennifer is an English teacher who is teaching her friend Natasha to speak English. This is an ongoing series of lessons, so check the list often for new lessons!

Mister Duncan [British]
This list of video lessons is more for elementary & intermediate students, but they are a great way to learn new vocabulary. All his videos include subtitles (text).

Vocabulary & Grammar

ESOL Courses – Online course for beginners [British]
ESOL Courses – Online English lessons, exercises, games and quizzes for beginners [British]
Helping You Learn English – English course for beginners [American]
Learn English Online – Online course for beginners [British]

The Most Common English Words
100 most common words in English (video)
1000 most common words in English: [Esl.about.com] 1-250, 251-500, 501-750, 751-1000
1000 most common words in English (in alphabetical order)

Verb Forms
Perfect English Grammar – Memorize the past simple & past participle forms of irregular verbs
Macmillan Dictionary – Test your knowledge of irregular verb forms with the ‘Irregular Verb Wheel Game’

 Reading

Read Theory – Read, listen, & answer questions
Super Easy Reading – Read, listen, & do activities
Simple English Wikipedia – 90,000 articles written in simple English!

 From http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/study-tips/

Prepositions

Introduction

This page shows you how to use the prepositions on, in, and at in different contexts.

1. Transportation

Preposition	Example Nouns	Example Sentences
in	car, truck	I went to Vancouver in my car.
on	bus, train, ship, plane, bicycle	I went downtown on the bus. We travelled to Toronto on the train.

2. Time

Preposition	Example Nouns	Example Sentences
in	January, February, March 1987, 1988, 1989 two minutes, three days	She arrived in February. I was born in 1988. I'll be home in three days.
on	Wednesday, Thursday weekend	The party is on Thursday. He left on the weekend.
at	7:00, 7:30, 8 o'clock, noon	I'll call you at 7.30.

3. Communications

Preposition	Example Nouns	Example Sentences
on	telephone Internet radio, television	I spoke to him on the telephone yesterday. I read about it on the Internet. I heard the news on the radio.

4. Where prepositions are NOT used

We don't use prepositions with certain words and phrases:

NO Preposition	Words and Phrases	Example Sentences
in, on, at	home this morning this afternoon every week last Tuesday next year	Sally went home. I met my classmates this morning. We will arrive this afternoon. We have an exam every week. Neil did his laundry last Tuesday. Betty will return next year.

When you are sure that you understand the lesson, you can continue with the exercise.

Continue with the exercise

TELLING THE TIME AND DESCRIBING PEOPLE

In our Real English series we touch on two different points today: how to tell the time in English and how to describe people's personality.

In the first video, several people answer the question What's the time?

Remember we can tell the time analogically or digitally. That way in British English:
8.05 five past eight [analogical] or eight (oh) five [digital]
8.10 ten past eight [analogical] or eight ten [digital]
8.15 (a) quarter past eight [analogical] or eight fifteen [digital]
8.30 half past eight [analogical] or eight thirty [digital]
8.35 twenty-five to nine [analogical] or eight thirty-five [digital]
8.45 (a) quarter to nine [analogical] or eight forty-five [digital]
8.50 ten to nine [analogical] or eight fifty [digital]
9.00 nine o'clock [analogical] or nine [digital]

In American English, after is often used instead of past:
6.10 ten past six (British English) / ten after six (American English)
Exception:
6.30 half past six (British English=American English)

And of or before or till instead of to.
2.35 twenty-five to three (British English / twenty-five of (or before or till) three (American English)

You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here and do an activity to practise the time on the Real English site here.

The second video helps us to revise some basic questions to find out personal information like What's your name?; Where are you from?; Can you introduce your friends? Yes, this is my daughter.

The video focuses on describing people's personality by answering the question Can you give me two or three adjectives that describe your mother?

Funnily enough, two weeks ago we dealt with descriptions in our Real English series when talking about astrological signs. That day we learnt a number of questions we can use to ask about someone's personality:
What are you like?
What kind of person are you?
Tell me about your personality.
Today we have learnt another question to find out the same information: Can you give me two or three adjectives that describe your mother?

You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here and do an activity to describe people on the Real English site here.

From My that´s English

BASIC REAL ENGLISH

Hello class! 

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year. To start, here is a wonderful website with videos about basic vocabulary: numbers, nationalities, possessives, etc. Enjoy!

http://www.multimedia-english.com/contenidos/listado/basic-real-english

CHRISTMAS VOCABULARY

Christmas is an interactive book by Mrs Haquet that shows us everything we need to know about Christmas:

• Christmas vocabulary
• Christmas traditions in several countries
• Christmas-related listening activities
• Christmas-related reading activities
• A carol
  
  

If you want to find out about Christmas, drop by Mrs Haquet's interactive book and you won't be disappointed.

TIMES AND DAILY ROUTINE

Hello guys, please click on the video to review your times and action words. It´s also good to practice question making and answering. 

THIS, THESE, THAT OR THOSE?

Hello guys!

Please watch this video and do the exercises about the demonstratives. Have fun!

DAILY ROUTINE

HELLO CLASS!

PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK 

http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_beginning.php?id=8377

WATCH THE VIDEO AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ON THE RIGHT.

SEE YOU IN CLASS!

DAYS OF THE WEEK AND MONTHS OF THE YEAR

Hello guys!

Please take some time to view these very short videos. Good practice to review your days of the week and the months of the year. Listen to the pronunciation! Enjoy!

WORD GAMES

HELLO GUYS!

A FUN WAY TO PRACTICE MORE VOCABULARY. ENJOY!

http://www.gudli.com/preschool/games/word-trail.html

AN AWESOME WEBSITE

Hello again guys!


Here I send you another link with tons of interesting things to do.


I hope you like it!!


http://www.isabelperez.com/grammar.htm