At the Apple comapny / or at ......(any)company

Question

Hello everyone! I have a question regarding the use of the definite article with names of companies.
Is it correct to say :"I work at the company "Apple"? I think it's sounds rather incorrect to me..
How can we say that: "I work at the Apple company" or "I work at Apple"? Rather confusing to me)
Appreciate your answer.
Thank you

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi Volna;
Welcome to the Forums.

I say: I work for Apple (Computers).

Don't use the definite article with a company name (or "company") unless it is part of the name.

I used to work for AT&T.
I work at Google's headquarters in California.
I visited General Electric Company's facility in Newark.

I ordered some DVDs from The Teaching Company. (The Teaching Company is the company's name.)

Cheers,
A-

s

Volna · Answer

Thanks a lot!!!:)

Volna · Answer

thank you. I found a text  where they use the article:"The organization Alfa Bank, a subject of public interest..... ". So, I presume, in this case , it can be .....

AlpheccaStars · Answer

volnathank you. I found a text where they use the article:"The organization Alfa Bank, a subject of public interest..... ". So, I presume, in this case , it can be .....

In this case, the determiner the is used with the noun organization, and not with the company name - Alfa Bank.

Cheers,
A-

s

Volna · Answer

Dear AlpheccaStars,
thank you for your reply. It's very helpful. But one thing is still confusing.
The reason is that I am an English teacher, I have to be precise)
so, If a person says :"I work at (for) "Oranta "company"
Can he use the word "company at the end".
If we talk about "Apple", we don't have to mention, that this is a company, but what about not well-known companies, or when people meet at the first time and they don't know anything about each other.
I looked through tons of grammar books, none of them gives this info)
Would appreciate your help one:)
Regards,
Irene

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Hi Irene:

You are asking about the sentence:

I work at (for) Oranta company.

A native English speaker would say this:
I work at Oranta.

The context tells me very clearly that Oranta is an organization that employs people (the verb "work"), and has a business location (the preposition "at"). I do not need the word "company" to tell me this, and that is why it is never used in this kind of sentence. Let's look next at the sentence with the preposition "for:"

I work for Oranta.

The context is a little more ambiguous, because Oranta could be the name of my boss. But a native speaker would know that Oranta is a company. How? Because if Oranta were a person, the native speaker would have said: I work for Mr. (Mrs.) Oranta. The use of the salutation (Mr./Mrs.) or title (President/Professor) makes it clear in context that I report to a person, not a company named Oranta. In a real situation, I would not introduce myself as working for Mr. Oranta anyway, unless we were trying to discover a mutual acquaintance.

Of course, in a real situation of two people meeting for the first time, the conversation might go like this:

A: Hi, My name is Bob Jones. I work for Oranta.
B: Hello, Bob, my name is Jim Smith. My friends call me Jimmy. I work for Aaron's Plumbing Supplies. I'm not familiar with Oranta. What kind of business is it?
A: Oranta makes valves and fittings and sells to the wholesale market. I'm in the sales department.
--------------

It is not really a matter of grammar, but one of convention.
If someone I had just met said: I work at (for) Oranta company. I would immediately know that he is not a native (American English) speaker. If he was otherwise fluent, I would guess that he is from India or another country, and listen for other features in his speech (accent, word usage, etc.) to confirm my suspicions.

Volna · Answer

Dear AlpheccaStars,
thank you a lot!
Now it sounds so clear to me!One more step in learning:)
Thanks a lot
Regards,
Irene

At the Apple comapny / or at ......(any)company

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