Grammar rule for 'the' in front of a noun

Question

Is there an exhaustive list of rules for when to put 'the' in front of a noun, more specifically a location?

I want my program to be able to be smart about doing exactly this when building sentences. See these two examples, 'Suite 500', and '2nd Floor Kitchen'.

The generic string/sentence is:

"I will see you at %s."

"I will see you at Suite 500.", this reads well.

"I will see you at 2nd Floor Kitchen.", this does not read well and sounds artificial.

"I will see you at the Suite 500.", this does not read well and sounds artificial.

"I will see you at the 2nd Floor Kitchen.", this reads well.

As illustrated, this works well for the first example, but sounds bad for the second. Adding 'the' for both has the inverse effect. I would like to implement some rules so that my program would know to prepend 'the' so that it reads well in all scenarios.

I will more than likely not be able to tell if these nouns are common or proper.

Not a complete answer, but numbered items don't appear to have an article if the number is stated like "item no. x". You may meet in "the 2nd kitchen", but simply "in kitchen number 2". Similarly with suite, hangar etc. It does not seem to depend much on the word. But some words do not go well with that numbering scheme so that an article is always used: "floor no. 5" sounds unnatural; it's always "the 5th floor". — Peter - Reinstate Monica, Apr 11 '16 at 15:18
Alas, your program will have to understand English in context. Notice that I will see you at the 2nd Floor Kitchen requires the article unless "2nd Floor Kitchen" is the name of a restaurant. — deadrat, Apr 11 '16 at 18:09
"I would like to implement some rules so that my program would know to prepend 'the' so that it reads well in all scenarios." good luck! the whole science of linguistics has not yet figured this out for English — Arm the good guys in America, Dec 12 '19 at 20:45
Does this answer your question? Are there any simple rules for choosing the definite vs. indefinite (vs. none) article? — Arm the good guys in America, Dec 12 '19 at 20:47

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 11 '16 at 21:16

'Suite' is a title in 'Suite 500', so like any proper noun it is assumed to be definite and needs no article. 'Suite' would be a class noun in 'the 500th suite', where it would need the article. 'Floor' and 'Kitchen' should not be capitalized in '2nd floor kitchen' (unless that is a proper name, in which case it needs no article).

Grammar rule for 'the' in front of a noun

1 Answers1