Determiners in Names of Places- Speaking Activities

Determiners in names of places speaking activities

Do the activity or activities below that your teacher tells you to:

• Make a sentence about a place using a sentence stem and/ or a place from below, and see if your partner has the same feelings, experiences, etc.
• Challenge your partner to use a place or a sentence stem below in a sentence about a place, ask them follow-up questions like “Why…?” and then guess if their sentence was true or not
• Flip a coin and try to make a true sentence about your partner with a place name with “the” if you got heads or one with a place name without “the” if you got tails

 

Suggested phrases for talking about places

• … is a famous person from… who I like.
• I can cook food from…
• I don’t want to go to…
• I have a book about/ from…
• I have a(n) … from…
• I have (never) been to.../ I have (never) visited…
• I have (never) met someone from…
• I have (never) tried… from…
• I have (never) read about the history of…
• I have (never) seen a movie from…/ a documentary about…
• I heard some news about…
• I know someone from…/ I know someone who lives in…
• I (don’t) like music from…/ I don’t like food from…/ I don’t like… from…
• I think … is beautiful/ boring/ dangerous/ interesting/ dirty…
• I think the best… is/ are from…
• I will go to … in the future.
• I’d like to know more about…
• I’d like to live in…/ visit…/ learn about…/ study…/… …
• My … is/ are from…
• One of my heroes is from…

Ask about any places below that you don’t know, working together to make sentences about each place.

Places to talk about – with articles version

• Africa (Lake Victoria, the Victoria Falls, Kilimanjaro, etc)
• The Alps (Mont Blanc, Lake Geneva in Switzerland, etc)
• Antarctica/ The South Pole
• Asia/ The Orient – The West
• Australia (Perth, Ayers Rock, etc)
• The Balkans (Croatia, etc)
• The capital of…/ Big cities in…
• Central Asia (Kazakhstan, etc)
• (Mainland) China (Beijing, etc)
• Countries near the equator/ Tropical countries
• The countryside
• The Czech Republic (Prague, etc)
• Developing countries/ The developing world
• East Asia (Mongolia, etc)
• Egypt (the Pyramids, the Nile, etc)
• Germany (Munich, Cologne, etc)
• Greece (Athens, etc)
• The Himalayas (e.g. Everest)
• The Indian Subcontinent/ South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka)
• The Korean Peninsula (South Korea or North Korea)
• Ireland (Northern Ireland or The Republic of Ireland)
• Italy (Florence, Rome, Turin, Milan, Naples, Venice, etc)
• The Low Countries (Belgium or the Netherlands)
• The Maldives
• The Mediterranean (Cyprus, Malta, etc)
• The Middle East (e.g. the UAE, the Dead Sea, or Jordan)
• Mount Fuji
• Neighbouring countries/ The nearest countries (to this one)
• North America (the Rockies, Lake Superior in the USA, Lake Titicaca in Mexico, etc)
• The Pacific Ocean
• Paris
• The Philippines (Cebu Island, etc)
• The Pyrenees
• The Red Sea
• Russia (Moscow, etc)
• Scandinavia
• The Sea of Japan
• The Seychelles
• South America (The Amazon in Brazil, Argentina, etc)
• Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, etc)
• The UK (England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland)
• The United States (LA, New York/ The Big Apple, New Orleans/ The Big Easy, etc)

Places to talk about – no articles version

• Africa (Lake Victoria, Victoria Falls, Kilimanjaro, etc)
• Alps (Mont Blanc, Lake Geneva in Switzerland, etc)
• Antarctica/ South Pole
• Asia/ Orient – West
• Australia (Perth, Ayers Rock, etc)
• Balkans (Croatia, etc)
• Capital of…/ Big cities in…
• Central Asia (Kazakhstan, etc)
• (Mainland) China (Beijing, etc)
• Countries near equator/ Tropical countries
• Countryside
• Czech Republic (Prague, etc)
• Developing countries/ Developing world
• East Asia (Mongolia, etc)
• Egypt (Pyramids, Nile, etc)
• Germany (Munich, Cologne, etc)
• Greece (Athens, etc)
• Himalayas (e.g. Everest)
• Indian Subcontinent/ South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka)
• Korean Peninsula (South Korea or North Korea)
• Ireland (Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland)
• Italy (Florence, Rome, Turin, Milan, Naples, Venice, etc)
• Low Countries (Belgium or Netherlands)
• Maldives
• Mediterranean (Cyprus, Malta, etc)
• Middle East (e.g. UAE, Dead Sea or Jordan)
• Mount Fuji
• Neighbouring countries/ Nearest countries (to this one)
• North America (Rockies, Lake Superior in USA, Lake Titicaca in Mexico, etc)
• Pacific Ocean
• Paris
• Philippines (Cebu Island, etc)
• Pyrenees
• Red Sea
• Russia (Moscow, etc)
• Scandinavia
• Sea of Japan
• Seychelles
• South America (Amazon in Brazil, Argentina, etc)
• Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, etc)
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland)
• United States (LA, New York/ Big Apple, New Orleans/ Big Easy, etc)

Put “the” in at least 10 places above, first with no help and then with the list of categories that you made/ checked to help.

Try to find patterns in what kinds of places take “the” and what kinds of places don’t. 

First of all without looking above, try to remember or work out if these kinds of words need “the” or not:

• countries made up of several states, many islands, etc, especially those whose names end in “-s”
• countries with “Republic” and “Kingdom” in the name
• other countries
• continents   
• areas similar to continents such as subcontinents      
• peninsulas
• individual mountains
• mountain ranges
• lakes
• rivers
• seas/ oceans
• unique geographical features/ places of which there is only one in the world
• city names
• city nicknames

Check above.

If you haven’t before, do the same activity with the version without “the”, making sure that you add “the” when you talk about places that need it.