DEFINITE ARTICLE THE Articles in English are invariable.

That is, they do not change according to the gender or number of the noun they refer to, e.g. the boy, the woman, the children 'The' is used: 1. to refer to something which has already been mentioned. Example: An elephant and a mouse fell in love. The mouse loved the elephant's long trunk, and the elephant loved the mouse's tiny nose. 2. when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before. Example: 'Where's the bathroom?' 'It's on the first floor.' 3. in sentences or clauses where we define or identify a particular person or object: Examples: The man who wrote this book is famous. 'Which car did you scratch?' 'The red one. My house is the one with a blue door.' 4. to refer to objects we regard as unique: Examples: the sun, the moon, the world 5. before superlatives and ordinal numbers: (see Adjectives) Examples: the highest building, the first page, the last chapter. 6. with adjectives, to refer to a whole group of people: Examples: the Japanese (see Nouns - Nationalities), the old 7. with names of geographical areas and oceans: Examples: the Caribbean, the Sahara, the Atlantic 8. with decades, or groups of years: Example: she grew up in the seventies

Geographical use of the There are some specific rules for using the with geographical nouns. Do not use the before:

names of most countries/territories: Italy, Mexico, Bolivia; however, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, the United States names of cities, towns, or states: Seoul, Manitoba, Miami names of streets: Washington Blvd., Main St. names of lakes and bays: Lake Titicaca, Lake Erie except with a group of lakes like the Great Lakes names of mountains: Mount Everest, Mount Fuji except with ranges of mountains like the Andes or the Rockies or unusual names like the Matterhorn names of continents (Asia, Europe) names of islands (Easter Island, Maui, Key West) except with island chains like the Aleutians, the Hebrides, or the Canary Islands

Do use the before:

names of rivers, oceans and seas: the Nile, the Pacific points on the globe: the Equator, the North Pole geographical areas: the Middle East, the West deserts, forests, gulfs, and peninsulas: the Sahara, the Persian Gulf, the Black Forest, the Iberian Peninsula

The Definite Article

The definite article is used when a particular thing is referred to. When the thing is definite!

You use the definite article:

- before a noun of which there is only one, or only one can be understood

The president, the baker, the sun, the moon, the stars.

- before an adjective used as a noun to describe a class of people.

The English, the French There have recently been several technical advancements for the deaf.

- before the names of many geographical areas

the Thames, the Rhine, the Himalayas, the United States

- before the names of musical instruments

the guitar, the drums, the trumpet section

- in conjunction with a superlative

the best computer, the best web site, the most interesting book.

There's a special idiomatic function in connection with this:

The bigger the better. The bigger they come the harder they fall. The more the merrier.

You don't use the definite article:

- before meals, languages, sicknesses, sports, and many expressions of place and time.

I never drink before breakfast. I'll see you next week. He's got asthma.

- before buildings, places and forms of transportation when we are interested in the function, not the object itself.

They went to school by taxi. They went to bed. He took him to court.

- But!

I left my umbrella on the bus. The bus stops outside the school to let the children off.

Can you see that these sentences do not pertain to the function of the bus? - Exceptions!

He went to the office. He's coming back to the theater. He just got back from the bank.

- before nouns used in a general sense, particularly abstract and uncountable nouns.

Sugar isn't good for overactive children. Money is the root of all evil. Life isn't easy here in the jungle.

- But! - When a phrase using of is employed, the noun usually has the definite article.

The Shah of Iran was a real weenie. The life of the nobility in France was tenuous at the start of the revolution. The education of an ESL student requires more personality than grammatical facility.

- But! - That's not the case when you don't use of :

They're meeting to discuss defense strategies in the Middle East. Life in ancient Greece was idyllic.

Linguistic usage also shapes the way we use the definite article. Compare the similar phrases below, more or less equal in meaning but not in the use of the definite article:

the death penalty - capital punishment The American Broadcasting Company - ABC