Articles

[ScarlettBegoni]

Hello everybody,

may you help me, please? When I had one of my first English lessons, we were told that we never use articles in front of names or cities, rivers,...
But now I have a different teacher and we were told that we can use:

I sit with a John.
I sit with the John.
or
I have swum in the Mississipi.

Is it okay? Thank you for your reply.

[5jj]

mayCan/Could you help me, please? When I had one of my first English lessons, we were told that we never use articles in front of personal names , or cities, or rivers, We normally use 'the' in front of the names of rivers.
But now I have a different teacher and we were told that we can use:

I sit with a John. It's possible, if we mean 'a person whose name is John'.
I sit with the John. I suppose it's possible to dream up a context in which this could be possible, but I can't.

The most natural thing to say is, as you learnt initially, "I sit with John".

I have swum in the Mississipi. This is correct.

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