1.167 specific places and organizations

Other nouns are used to refer to just one person, thing, or group in a particular place or organization, so that if you are talking about that place or organization or talking to someone in it, you can use just 'the' and the noun.

For example, if there is only one station in a town, the people who live in the town will talk about 'the station'. Similarly, people living in Britain talk to each other about 'the economy', meaning 'the British economy', and people working for the same organization might talk about 'the boss', 'the union', or 'the canteen' without needing to specify the organization.

• Mrs Robertson heard that the church had been bombed.
• There's a wind coming off the river.
• We've had to get rid of the director.
• The mayor is a forty-eight-year-old former labourer.
• What is the President doing about all this?