球类运动名词前冠词的使用问题

如果将球类运动名词视为一种运动或一种动词的比赛，则它的面前不用冠词。如：

The boy is crazy about [on] football. 那孩子对足球着了迷。

Basketball is my favourite game. 篮球是我最喜欢的体育项目。

We beat them at basketball yesterday. 我们在昨天的篮球赛中赢了他们。

They played football every Saturday afternoon. 他们每周星期六下午踢足球。

On Saturday we watched football and on the following day we went to church. 星期六我们看足球赛，第二天去教堂做礼拜。

但是，若不是指球类运动，而是指球类运动所用的球，则可用冠词或其他限定词。如：

The basketball is new, which was bought yesterday. 这个篮球是新的，是昨天才买的。

另外，若球类运动名词用于另一名词作定语，则其前是否用冠词以及用什么冠词，取决于后面所修饰的名词。如；

The boy is the first player of the football team. 这孩子是足球队的第一主力队员。

Our football team disappointed us when they lost the match. 我们的足球队在比赛中输了，使我们失望。

The basketball game was boring; we saw enough and went home. 那场篮球赛很没劲，我们看够了就回家了。

Watching the basketball match between the two teams was really exciting. 观看这两个球队的篮球赛实在是激动人心。