Hi Sana,

Good question; it’s not necessarily easily defined as this can depend, but essentially there are lots of locations/places where we wouldn’t use an article (for example home, work, church, hospital, school, university, prison, town). However while we can say general locations often don’t have an article, you can’t really use that as a rule, as so many locations do use an article (the beach, the country, the river). Perhaps the key difference is that “general” may mean a location that doesn’t have denote a specific place/definable object (home/work, for example, are general while the house/the office are specific). But it may be easier to compile lists of which take an article and which don’t than to follow patterns here.

Phil

Hi Sana, the article here essentially changes the meaning; “American people” would be a generalisation, while “the American people” refers to the entire cultural community. There isn’t necessarily a huge difference in use but generally, we would use the article when referring to something that affects or results from the country as a whole, for example “The American people voted for a new president.” (meaning the people as a nation, rather than a simple plural).

The American people
The British people
The Chinese people

Can we say this or should we zero article here, too.