{"id":2692,"date":"2016-01-19T14:53:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T22:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2692"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:26","slug":"the-and-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-and-places\/","title":{"rendered":"“The” and Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, I wrote a post called The Amazing \u2018The\u2019<\/em><\/a>. In a numbered list of six rules, this post covered all of the rules for using \u201cthe\u201d in the English language. \u2026. Or so I thought. In the year since I wrote that post, many students have asked me questions about Rule # 5. In my original post, rule five basically states that \u201cthe\u201d appears before any proper noun that describes a location, provided the following is true:<\/p>\n

A. The location has two or more words in its name
\nB. One of the words would be a common noun if it were used alone<\/p>\n

Examples of names that follow this rule include the United States, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt Lake, and the University of Dubai.<\/p>\n

In my original post, I gave two exceptions to this rule\u2026 at first. Then, in the comments, a student pointed out<\/a> that two exceptions wasn\u2019t enough. I replied to his comment<\/a> by giving a third exception.<\/p>\n

Since then, a lot of other students have contacted me directly to complain that even three exceptions aren\u2019t enough. As students continue to ask me about Rule 5 of \u201cThe Amazing The,\u201d I\u2019ve realized the rule actually has many, MANY exceptions. I\u2019ve also realized\u2014to my embarrassment\u2014that I REALLY didn\u2019t explain rule five properly. So in this post, we\u2019re going to revisit the rules for \u201cthe\u201d and nouns of location. Read on for some much-needed additional explanation.<\/p>\n

The exceptions to Rule 5 can be grouped into several categories. Let\u2019s look them over:<\/p>\n

Exceptions for geographic features<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Geographic locations where land meets water:<\/em> The names of costal locations such as beaches, bays, and harbors do not have \u201cthe\u201d before them, even if they otherwise meet criteria (A) and (B) for Rule 5.\n
      \n
    • EX: Byron Bay, Pearl Harbor, Virginia Beach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
    • Lakes, where lake is the first word in the name<\/em>\n
        \n
      • EX: Lake Baikal, Lake Michigan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
      • Smaller bodies of water that are not geographically significant:<\/em> This includes creeks and brooks (very small rivers), waterfalls, and ponds (very small lakes).\n
          \n
        • EX: Otter Creek, Stony Brook, Niagara Falls, Green Pond<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
        • Individual mountains (not groups of mountains or mountain ranges)<\/em>\n
            \n
          • EX: Mount Kilimanjaro (in Tanzania), Witch Mountain (from fictional movie Escape From Witch Mountain<\/em>), Castle Peak (in Colorado, USA)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Exceptions for cities, towns, and locations within cities and towns<\/h2>\n
              \n
            • Places with the word \u201ccity\u201d or \u201ctown\u201d in them<\/em>: It\u2019s common for communities to have the word town or city in their English names. But the official names of these communities will never start with \u201cthe.\u201d\n
                \n
              • EX: New York City, Frog Town (a district in Minneapolis, USA)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
              • Cities or towns with other common nouns in their names<\/em>: Generally, a city or town\u2019s official name will never start with \u201cthe,\u201d even if the name satisfies the requirements for rule 5.\n
                  \n
                • EX: Elk River (a city in Minnesota), Idaho Springs (Colorado), Apple Valley (California)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                • Neighborhoods:<\/em> names of neighborhoods that contain common nouns will not generally have \u201cthe\u201d in them.\n
                    \n
                  • EX: Big Oaks (neighborhood in Chicago), West End (neighborhood in Boston)<\/li>\n
                  • Special note:<\/strong> neighborhoods with the words \u201cside\u201d or \u201cdistrict\u201d in them will still follow the rule and have \u201cthe.\u201d Examples include the Mission District in San Francisco, and the East Side Hill, the neighborhood I grew up in in my hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                  • Places that with possessive nouns in the name:<\/em> Certain location names have a possessive noun in them. This is especially common for restaurants and stores. Often, stores will drop the possessive apostrophe when their name includes a possessive.\n
                      \n
                    • EX: Famous Dave\u2019s Bar-B-Q (American restaurant chain), Michaels Stores (chain of art supply shops in North America), and Our Place (small restaurant chain in Texas)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                    • Small outdoor spaces:<\/em> Relatively small outdoor areas will not start with \u201cthe.\u201d\n
                        \n
                      • EX: Times Square, Wrigley Field, Central Park<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                        Exceptions for schools and school buildings<\/h2>\n
                          \n
                        • The names of schools:<\/em> Grade schools and universities alike do not usually have \u201cthe,\u201d even if there is a common noun in their names.\n
                            \n
                          • EX: Boyd Elementary School, Anseong Seoun Middle School, Degrassi High School, Harvard University<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                          • Building complex names with \u201chall\u201d in them:<\/em> In the English speaking world, many buildings on university campuses have the word \u201chall\u201d in their names. Because the names of school buildings typically do not include \u201cthe,\u201d the names of halls also don\u2019t usually include \u201cthe.\u201d This applies even to buildings that aren\u2019t on campuses.\n
                              \n
                            • EX: Chicago City Hall, Towers Hall, Seton Hall<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                              So far, I\u2019ve been focusing on exceptions to Rule 5 that are linked to vocabulary<\/em>\u2014specific types of words that cause \u201cthe\u201d to be dropped from the name of a place. In my next post on this subject, we\u2019ll take a look at how the grammar of a phrase or sentence can affect the use of \u201cthe\u201d with nouns of location. Stay tuned, Magooshers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                              A while back, I wrote a post called The Amazing \u2018The\u2019. In a numbered list of six rules, this post covered all of the rules for using \u201cthe\u201d in the English language. \u2026. Or so I thought. In the year since I wrote that post, many students have asked me questions about Rule # 5. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n"The" and Places - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-and-places\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The" and Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A while back, I wrote a post called The Amazing \u2018The\u2019. In a numbered list of six rules, this post covered all of the rules for using \u201cthe\u201d in the English language. \u2026. Or so I thought. In the year since I wrote that post, many students have asked me questions about Rule # 5. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}