The use of articles with names of seasons.

Names of seasons are used without articles if they show a certain time of the year.

It was spring. I like spring.

The definite article is used when these nouns are modified by a particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite.

It happened in the spring of 1930. The spring was cold and rainy.

The indefinite article is used when these nouns are modified by a descriptive attribute.

It was a cold spring.

When names of seasons are modified by the adjectives early or late, no articles are used. It was early spring.

§ 21. The use of articles with the nouns school, college, bed, prison, jail.

The nouns school, college, bed, prison, jail are used without an article when they lose their concrete meaning and express the purpose for which the objects denoted by these nouns serve.

When these nouns denote concrete objects the articles are used according to the general principle.

to be at school – to be a schoolboy (schoolgirl) to go to school

to be at college – to be a student of a college

to leave school – to finish or drop one’s studies

to go to the school – not as a pupil (the building is meant)

'to leave the school – to leave the building

(b) Bed.

to go to bed – ложиться спать

to be in bed – лежать в постели

to be in the bed – article of furniture is meant

to be on the bed

to be in prison (in jail) – to be a prisoner

to be sent to prison

to be put in prison

to be in the prison – not as a' prisoner (the building is meant), to go to the prison

The use of articles with the noun town.

The noun town when used with prepositions does not take an article:

(a) when we mean the nearest town (if we live in the country) or the town we live in.

You cannot go to town tomorrow. What can you have to do in town ... ?

(b) when the noun town is opposed to the noun country.

He was not used to country life, having spent twenty years in town.

Otherwise the noun town is used with the definite or indefinite article.

I want to go to the town where I was born.

The use of articles with the names of meals.

Names of meals are used without articles.

When did you have dinner? Is dinner ready? Mother is cooking dinner.

The definite article is used when the nouns are modified by a particularizing attribute or when the situation makes them definite.

The dinner we had today was very substantial. The dinner was a success.

The indefinite article is used if the name of a meal is modified by a descriptive attribute.

After a hearty breakfast the four gentlemen sallied forth to walk

The use of articles with names of languages.

Names of languages when they are not followed by the noun language are used without articles: She knows English.

Note the peculiar use of the definite article in: (1) It is a translation from the English (the French, etc.), (2) What is the English (the French, etc.) for ‘сосна’?

The definite article is used if the noun is modified by a particularizing attribute:

The English of America differs from the English of England.

When the noun language is mentioned the definite article is used: the English language, the German language

USE OF ARTICLES WITH NOUNS MODIFIED BY CERTAIN ADJECTIVES, PRONOUNS AND NUMERALS

Few, a few, the few; little, a little, the little.

Few means ‘мало’, it has a negative meaning.

A few means ‘несколько’, it has a positive meaning.

The few means ‘те,немногие (которые)’.

He was a very good man. There are few like him in the world to-day.

We left after a few moments.

You need not fear to hear the few remaining words we have to say.

Little means ‘мало’, it has a negative meaning.