Articles A/AN/THE

No Article 1, vimos 3 regras de ouro para diminuir os erros do uso dos artigos:

• People’s jobs have a/an. He’s an architect.
• Singular countable nouns have an article. That’s the woman I met last week.
• Things in general – no article. Cats like mice.

Veremos agora outras regras para o uso dos artigos:

Special places (Lugar específico)

• My son’s at university but my daughter still goes to school.
• He was sent to prison for 10 years.
• Now that winter’s here I find it difficult to get out of bed.
• I go to work by bus but I go home on foot.

Em expressões com o número dos lugares NÃO HÁ ARTIGO depois da preposição:

to/at school, to/at university/college, to/in church, to/in/out of prison, to/in hospital, to/in/out of bed, to/at work, at home.

OBS: Enquanto nós dizemos ‘go to school’ e ‘go to work’ etc, a expressão ‘go home’ não tem ‘the’ nem ‘to’.

Transport (Transporte)

• I go to work by bus but I go home on foot.
• I hate travelling by train.

Meios de transportes (by bus, by train, by car, by plane, by bicycle) não tem artigos. Mas on foot é diferente.

Geography (Geográfico)

No article – continents (Africa, Asia etc.) countries (France, Germany, Slovakia etc - but the Slovak Republic, the United States, the United Kingdom) towns & cities (Bratislava, London etc.) lakes (Lake Victoria, Lake Balaton etc.) universities (Oxford University, Nitra University etc.)
 
Com ‘the’ - seas & oceans (the Atlantic, the Mediterranean etc.) mountain ranges (the Himalayas, the Tatras) rivers (the Amazon, the Danube etc.)

Other expressions (outras expressões)

• I don’t watch television very often but I listen to the radio all the time.

• I’ve got a headache.
• I’ve got a stomach-ache
• I’ve got a cold.

Mas

• I’ve got ‘flu.
• I’ve got earache.
• I’ve got toothache.

Outras doenças não tem artigo.

Fonte: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/quick-grammar/articles-2