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Teaching Resources for Indefinite and Definite Articles:
Unique Nouns Require a Definite Article
Students read some news stories and decide whether or not to use a definite or indefinite article.
Another Basic Rule Regarding Definite Articles and Unique Nouns:
by Chris Gunn
Introduction | Basic Rule One | Basic Rule Two | Basic Rule Three
Rule 2: When a Noun is Unique, Use a Definite Article
Another important rule is when something is unique* or, in other words, there is only one of that object. In this case, the definite article is used. The sun, the president, the queen of England, the capital city, and the moon are all examples. This is especially true for objects that are well known by many or most people, but it is true even when the hearer may not know the object:
A:Who's he?
B:He's the president of Korea. She's the CFO. He's the mayor.
This can be contrasted with:
A: Who's she?
B: She's a member of parliament. She's an accountant. He's an alderman.
This uniqueness can come by association:
A car crashed into a tree. The driver was seriously injured.
Once we established (introduced) the car, there could only be one driver so driver was unique at the time of introduction and we use the driver instead of a driver. We could have rewritten this so that driver was not unique (and the car was) when it was introduced:
A driver was seriously injured when the car he was driving crashed.
A driver can only be driving one car at a time so car is unique in this instance once driver was introduced.
This exception applies to superlatives (which are usually unique in occupying the extreme postion or quality): the best place, the worst thing, the fastest runner, the tallest mountain, and the most interesting person I've ever met. This can be contrasted with comparatives such as a better mouse trap where several better mouse traps are possible.
This exception also applies to ordering (ordinal numbers used as adjectives) where it is presumed that the ordering is unique: the second time, the third example, the fourth person to call. In other words, once you place an order on objects they hold a unique position in that order.
This exception applies to named things (which through naming become unique):
The Rocky Mountains (a mountain range)
The New York Islanders (a sports team)
The Amazon River (a river in South America)
The Pacific Ocean (an ocean)
The Steelworkers Union (an organization)
The Great Plains (a geographic locality)
The Washington Monument (a statue)
The Number Four Bus
However, this application is imperfect as some things such as named lakes and islands take no articles (Buttle Lake, Skull Island) except in plural instances (the Great Lakes, the Galapagos islands).
This exception applies to famous people who become unique in their fame:
A: I saw Nicole Kidman yesterday.
B: Nicole Kidman, the actor? (There is only one famous Nicole Kidman)
The links above right cover some of the applications of this exception.
Introduction | Basic Rule One | Basic Rule Two | Basic Rule Three
* I suppose I should clarify that here 'unique' does not mean special or different but means that there is only one of that object.
All materials (c) 2007 Lanternfish ESL