Noun: Macam-macam Noun (part-2)

Proper Nouns without THE

We do not use "the" with names of people. For example:

first names	Bill (not the Bill)
	Hilary
surnames	Clinton
	Gates
full names	Hilary Gates

We do not normally use "the" with names of companies. For example:

• Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub (not the EnglishClub)
• General Motors, Air France, British Airways
• Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd

If the full (registered) name of a company starts with "The", then we use "The" if we use the full name, for example:

• The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd

In this case, "The" is part of the company's name and must be capitalised, like all names.

We do not normally use "the" for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -'s or -s). For example:

shops	Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys
banks	Barclays Bank
hotels, restaurants	Steve's Hotel, Joe's Cafe, McDonalds
churches, cathedrals	St John's Church, St Peter's Cathedral

We do not normally use "the" with names of places. For example:

towns	Washington (not The Washington), Paris, Tokyo
states, regions	Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe
countries	England, Italy, Brazil
continents	Asia, Europe, North America
islands	Corsica
mountains	Everest

Exception! If a country name includes "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc, we use "the":

states	the United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA
kingdom	the United Kingdom, the UK
republic	the French Republic

We do not use "the" with "President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name":

the president, the king	President Bush (not the President Bush)
the captain, the detective	Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo
the doctor, the professor	Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle
my uncle, your aunt	Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill
	Mr Gates (not the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton, Miss Black

Look at these example sentences:

• I wanted to speak to the doctor.
• I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.
• Who was the president before President Kennedy?

We do not use "the" with "Lake/Mount + Name":

the lake	Lake Victoria
the mount	Mount Everest

Look at this example sentence:

• We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic view across the lake.

We do not normally use "the" for roads, streets, squares, parks etc:

streets etc	Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue
squares etc	Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus
parks etc	Central Park, Kew Gardens

Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use "the":

people	Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul's Cathedral
places	Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle

Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc:

States	the United States of America/the USA
Kingdom	the United Kingdom/the UK
Republic	the French Republic

We normally use "the" for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:

canals	the Suez Canal
rivers	the River Nile, the Nile
seas	the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean
oceans	the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

We normally use "the" for plural names of people and places:

people (families, for example)	the Clintons
countries	the Philippines, the United States
island groups	the Virgin Islands, the British Isles
mountain ranges	the Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

• I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill's birthday.
• Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies.
• Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurants	the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant
banks	the National Westminster Bank
cinemas, theatres	the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema
museums	the British Museum, the National Gallery
buildings	the White House, the Crystal Palace
newspapers	the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post
organisations	the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":

• the Tower of London
• the Gulf of Siam
• the Tropic of Cancer
• the London School of Economics
• the Bank of France
• the Statue of Liberty

Possessive

When we want to show that something belongs to somebody or something, we usually add an apostrophe + s ('s) to a singular noun and an apostrophe (') to a plural noun, for example:

• the boy's ball (one boy)
• the boys' ball (two or more boys)

Notice that the number of balls does not matter. The structure is influenced by the possessor and not the possessed.

	one ball	more than one ball
one boy	the boy's ball	the boy's balls
more than one boy	the boys' ball	the boys' balls

The structure can be used for a whole phrase:

• the man next door's mother (the mother of the man next door)
• the Queen of England's poodles (the poodles of the Queen of England)

Although we can use of to show possession, it is more usual to use possessive 's. The following phrases have the same meaning, but #2 is more usual and natural: 

1. the boyfriend of my sister
2. my sister's boyfriend

Proper Nouns (Names)

We very often use possessive 's with names:

• This is Mary's car.
• Where is Ram's telephone?
• Who took Anthony's pen?
• I like Tara's hair.

When a name ends in s, we usually treat it like any other singular noun, and add 's:

• This is Charles's chair.

But it is possible (especially with older, classical names) to just add the apostrophe ':

• Who was Jesus' father?

Irregular Plurals

Some nouns have irregular plural forms without s (man → men). To show possession, we usually add 's to the plural form of these nouns:

singular noun	plural noun
my child's dog	my children's dog
the man's work	the men's work
the mouse's cage	the mice's cage
a person's clothes	people's clothes

Noun as Adjective

As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun:

adjective	noun
clever	teacher
small	office
black	horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" an adjective.

noun as adjective	noun
history	teacher
ticket	office
race	horse

The "noun as adjective" always comes first

If you remember this, it will help you to understand what is being talked about:

• a race horse is a horse that runs in races
• a horse race is a race for horses
• a boat race is a race for boats
• a love story is a story about love
• a war story is a story about war
• a tennis ball is a ball for playing tennis
• tennis shoes are shoes for playing tennis
• a computer exhibition is an exhibition of computers
• a bicycle shop is a shop that sells bicycles