專門替中國人寫的英語語法12-3：冠詞使用時的例外

　　第十二章 冠詞(Articles)

　　12-3 冠詞使用時的例外

　　在以上的兩節(jié)，我們好像說冠詞的使用是有一定規(guī)則的，其實(shí)不然，例外也不少。在很多情形之下，冠詞是要省略的，更麻煩的是，連省略冠詞的規(guī)則都有例外，應(yīng)該省的卻又不省了。

　　第一個有關(guān)冠詞的特殊用法是這樣的，假設(shè)我們要說〝男生通常不喜歡彈鋼琴〞，我們不能說

　　Boy does not like to play the piano.

　　而要說

　　Boys do not like to play the piano.

　　這時，Boys的前面，是沒有冠詞的，理由很簡單，我們不能加a，因?yàn)閎oys是復(fù)數(shù)，我們也不能加the，因?yàn)閎oys并沒有指定哪一個男孩，也沒有指定哪一種男孩。類似的例子有：

　　Girls are more diligent than boys.

　　When spring comes, flowers start to bloom.

　　Dogs are often close to their masters.

　　Cats are often quite lazy.

　　Men eat more than women.

　　Professors are all very smart.

　　第二個規(guī)則有關(guān)所謂不可數(shù)名詞，很多名詞是可以數(shù)的如：

　　a cup, two cups

　　a boy, three boys

　　a teacher

　　a student

　　a boat

　　an airplane

　　a glass of water

　　a cup of tea

　　可是很多名詞是不可數(shù)的，以下這些名詞都是抽象的，因此不可數(shù)

　　time

　　love

　　hatred

　　pain

　　joy

　　sadness

　　kindness

　　wisdom

　　hope

　　patience

　　這些抽象名詞的前面是不要加冠詞的，例子如下：

　　Time flies.(時間過得很快)

　　We can not live without love.

　　Let there be no hatred.

　　We must be able to endure pain.

　　Loving others creates joy.

　　There is sadness in his voice.

　　Can you feel his kindness?

　　He has wisdom.

　　There is hope among us.

　　I am losing patience.

　　以上的例子，乃是泛指的事物，如果特定的抽象名詞，仍要加冠詞。例如：

　　This is the time to cry.

　　Do you feel the pain?

　　There is a hatred towards was in our society.

　　Everyone can feel the joy of being loved.

　　We just can not avoid the sadness of losing some loved ones.

　　He does have the patience to listen to long talks.

　　It is a virtue not to steal.

　　還有一些不可數(shù)的名詞，是所謂的物質(zhì)名詞，像

　　water

　　fire

　　air

　　metal

　　tea

　　coffee

　　bread

　　butter

　　如果這些物質(zhì)名詞泛指一般的東西，前面是不要加冠詞的，例如

　　Drinking water is important.

　　Don't play with fire.

　　We need air to breath.

　　There is metal in this device.

　　I don't drink tea.

　　I like coffee.

　　Father brings bread and butter home every day.

　　一旦物質(zhì)名詞指特定的東西，前面就要加冠詞，例如：

　　The water in this city is polluted.

　　There was a fire near our home last night.

　　The air in this town is getting worse and worse.

　　Copper is a metal.

　　The tea from India is very popular in England.

　　專有名詞，一般說來都不要加冠詞的：

　　Mary is from Canada.

　　John got married last month.

　　Taiwan is an island.

　　England is in Europe.

　　France is a nice country to visit.

　　Russia is a large country.

　　Park Street is the main street in this city.

　　Go to Taipei first.

　　Sun Moon Lake is a beautiful lake.

　　January is often very cold here.

　　Sunday is a day for resting.

　　Spring is the best season.

　　Mt. Everest is in Europe.

　　President Kennedy died when he was young.

　　King George was considered a mad king.

　　Queen Elizabeth visited Australia recently.

　　可惜的是，英文中專有名詞仍有要加the的，我們將試著將這些例外寫成規(guī)則，但這種規(guī)則一定掛一漏萬，讀者如要知道何種情況要加冠詞，何種情況不加冠詞，惟一的辦法是多讀英文的文章，慢慢地就會了解什么情形該用冠詞，什么情形不用冠詞。

　　哪些專門名詞前面仍要加冠詞the呢?

　　(1) 河流，海洋，沙漠，海峽，海灣等等專有名詞的前面都要加the。

　　the Hudson River (赫德森河)

　　the Rhine River (萊茵河)

　　the Yellow River (黃河)

　　the River Thames (泰唔士河)

　　the Amazon River (亞馬孫河)

　　the Pacific Ocean (太平洋)

　　the Red Sea (紅海)

　　the Mediterranean Sea (地中海)

　　the Baltic Sea (波羅的海)

　　the Atlantic Ocean (大西洋)

　　the Sahara Desert (撒哈拉大沙漠)

　　the Gobi Desert (戈壁大沙漠)

　　the Taiwan Straits (臺灣海峽)

　　the English Channel (英吉利海峽)

　　the Manila Bay (馬尼拉海灣)

　　the Bay of Tokyo (東京灣)

　　the Persian Gulf (波斯灣)

　　(2) 國家的名詞中如有of時，要加the

　　the United States of America

　　the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

　　the Republic of China

　　(3) 非常言式的名稱，也要加the

　　the World Bank (世界銀行)

　　the United Nations (聯(lián)合國)

　　the Red Cross (紅十字會)

　　the Catholic Church (天主教會)

　　(4) 帝國，朝代，時代等等專有名詞的前面，要加the

　　the British Empire (大英帝國)

　　the Ottoman Empire (奧圖門帝國)

　　the United Kingdom (聯(lián)合王國)

　　the Byzantine Era (拜占庭時代)

　　the Chin Dynasty (秦朝)

　　the Victoria Era (維多利亞時代)

　　the Hanover Dynasty (漢諾威王朝)

　　The Renaissance Era (文藝復(fù)興時代)

　　the Dark Ages (黑暗時代)

　　(5) 如果提到〝全體〞，就要加the

　　the Wangs (王家)

　　the Kennedys (肯尼迪家族)

　　請注意，Wang和Kennedy都是姓，如果要指全家人，必須在姓氏的后面加s，前面加the。

　　the Chinese (中國人)

　　the Americans (美國人)

　　the Africans (非洲人)

　　我們說過，一般的專有名詞是不要加冠詞的，但是有很多其它的名詞前面也不要加冠詞，以下是一些規(guī)則：

　　(1)學(xué)科一概不加冠詞

　　I do not like mathematics.

　　He hates geometry.

　　She teaches us history.

　　(2)三餐一概不加冠詞

　　Did you have lunch.

　　Missing breakfast is bad for your health.

　　We have had dinner already.

　　千萬記住，如果我們的名詞指定某一個特定的時候，就仍要加冠詞，以下是一些例子：

　　I had a happy Christmas lunch with my family.

　　The dinner you treated me last night was really good.

　　Did you have a big breakfast?

　　(3)假如我們說〝上學(xué)〞，〝去教堂〞等等，都不要加冠詞，例如

　　I went to church yesterday.

　　He goes to church every Sunday.

　　She is going to college this summer.

　　Did you go to school last week?

　　但是如果我們說的是指定的教堂，學(xué)校等等，仍要加冠詞，例如：

　　I went to the church at the corner of Park Street yesterday.

　　The church which I went to when I was young is still there.

　　I did not go to the college which my father went to.

　　(4)語言不要加冠詞

　　English is easy to learn.

　　There are also grammatical rules in Chinese.

　　Can you speech Japanese?

　　但是，我們必須注意語言有另一種表示的方法，例如：

　　The English language is easy to learn.

　　There are grammatical rules in the Chinese language.

　　(5)運(yùn)動一概前面不加冠詞

　　Do you play tennis?

　　I can not play basketball.

　　I really love soccer.

　　(6)動名詞前面不加冠詞，例如

　　Swimming is good for you.

　　I like playing tennis.

　　Do you enjoy playing piano?