How do you use “the” ?
+ Do you know how do you use “the”? – Yes !?
+ Are you sure about that?
+ NOT REALLY.
Have you ever seen the film “The social network”? That is the film about Facebook, and Mark Zucgerberg. However I ’m not going to talk about the film, I’m talking about a detail: they changed their name from “The Facebook” to “Facebook”. Do you know why?
The main point of this lesson is how we use the article “The”.
Yes, “the” is used to indicate something that is common knowledge.
- The earth is round ( there is ONLY 1 EARTH )
- The boy in the corner is my friend.
( The speaker & the listener know which boy)
- + “The” also accompany with non-count nouns in Speific terms; and NEVER go with plural count nouns.
And a special gifts that may very useful for you, I give you the following generalizations as a guide for the use of the article “the”:
*Use “the” with:
- -Oceans, rivers, seas, gulfs, plular lakes. ( the Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Lakes ).
- -moutains (the Andes, the Hoang Lien Son)
- -Earth, moon
- -School, colleges, uni… when the phrase begins with school, etc.. ( the University of Florida)
- -Wars ( the Vietnamese war )
- -Certain countries/groups of countries with more than 1 word ( the U.S) (Except Great Britain).
- -Historical documents (the Constitution)
- -Ethnic group (the Indians, the Aztecs)
*Don’t use “the” with:
- -Singular lakes (lake Geneva, lake Hoan Kiem)
- -mounts ( Mount Versurious, mount Ba Vi)
- -planets, constellations.
- -school, colleges, uni…when the phrase begins with a proper noun (Santa Fe Community College)
- -World War
- -Countries preceded by New or an adjective such as a direction( New Zealand, South Africa)
- -Abtract nouns ( freedom, happiness)
- -Holidays (Christmas, Easter)