7. When not to use 'a/an' or 'the'

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1. When we are talking about people or things in general:

- I'm afraid of dogs

- Doctors are paid more than teachers

- Do you often listen to classical music?

- I go to school (i.e. the speaker is not talking about one particular school)

- He is in prison (i.e. the speaker is not talking about one particular prison)

- I like Chinese food

- I want to go to university (i.e. the speaker is not talking about any particular university)

2. When we talk about meals, we don't usually use 'the' unless we are talking about a specific meal e.g. the breakfast was delicious (a specific breakfast)

- I eat dinner at 8:00pm

- I'm going for lunch tomorrow

- Breakfast at my friend's house is always delicious.

3. We usually don't use 'the' in front of a noun or number:

- My train is on platform 5 (i.e. platform 5 doesn't need 'the')

- I'm in room 214

- I'm looking for terminal 1

4. Places i.e. countries, continents, states, regions, islands, cities, towns, mountains, streets - almost never use 'the'

- He climbed Mount Everest (not the Mount Everest)

- I'm going to Greece next week

- I'll meet you on O'Connell Street

- He's from California

- I want to visit Paris

- We're going on holidays to Bali

There are exceptions: plural names of people and places, groups of islands, mountain ranges and geographic references (but not western, northern, etc.:

- The Canary Islands

- The Taylors

- The Alps

- The north of France

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