When to use 'THE' with names of seas, oceans, and rivers

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on articles and

geography, bodies of water. This is the first of a two-part series on geography and articles,

and today, we're simply focusing on when to use "the" or "the" and when not to use it

when we talk about different bodies of water on the map.

Okay, so we have oceans, seas, lakes, waterfalls, and rivers. And again, articles are one of

the most difficult things to master in the English language, and some languages simply

don't have articles, so we understand that, you know, you need to know these things.

First of all, oceans. So we have Atlantic, Pacific, Indian. In this situation, you must

use the article "the." Okay? So we don't just say Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Indian

Ocean. We say the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean. Okay?

For seas, for example, we have Caspian or Baltic. We do also use "the." So again, we

don't say Caspian Sea or Baltic Sea. We say the Caspian Sea or the Baltic Sea or the Balkans,

whatever it is.

When it comes to lakes, now, here, we have Geneva, Superior, for example. We don't actually

use "the" in most cases. So here, we just say Lake Geneva or Lake Superior or Lake Michigan,

Ontario, etc.

When it comes to waterfalls, like Victoria Falls, Niagara Falls, it's the same case.

Like lakes, we don't use "the" in this situation. We just say, "Yeah, I have been to Victoria

Falls." "I have been to Niagara Falls." "I have seen Niagara Falls." Not "the" Niagara

Falls, but Niagara Falls.

Okay, and finally, we have rivers. So we have Nile, Amazon, St. Lawrence. In this situation,

you must use "the." So you never say, "I went to Egypt and I saw Nile." Say, "I went to

Egypt and I saw the Nile." "I went to Brazil and I traveled on the Amazon." "I went to

Montreal, Quebec, and I saw the St. Lawrence." Okay?

Okay, guys, so just a reminder, when you're speaking about oceans, please use "the." Seas,

"the." Lakes, nothing. Waterfalls, nothing. Rivers, "the." If you'd like to test your

understanding of this knowledge, please check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. Good luck,

guys.