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”.
Let’s see:
Yes, “the” is used to indicate something that is common knowledge.
For example:
- 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- -Historical documents (the Constitution)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)
- -Sports
- -Abtract nouns ( freedom, happiness)
- -Holidays (Christmas, Easter)
