The
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the
- Definite grammatical article. Unlike many languages, English does not inflect its articles for gender, case or number.
- The word "the" is the most common word in the English language.
- The men, the women, the boy and the girl watched the man give the birdseed to the birds.
- When stressed, indicates that the object in question is considered to be the best or the only one worthy of attention.
- That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery.
- With an adjective, indicates all persons to whom the adjective applies.
- Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
- With a comparative or more and a verb phrase, establishes a parallel with one or more other such comparatives (often but not always a similar construction with the).
- The hotter the better.
- The more I think about it, the weaker it looks.
- It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it.
- The more money donated, the more books purchased and the more happy children there are.
- With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result in the direction of the comparative. This can be negated with none.
- It was a difficult time, but I'm the wiser for it.
- It was a difficult time, and I'm none the wiser for it.
- With a superlative, indicates the person or thing to which the superlative applies.
- That apple pie was the best.
See also
Pronunciation
- (stressed) thē, /ðiː/, /Di:/
- (unstressed) thə, /ðə/, /D@/ (but see notes below)
Notes
The word the is pronounced /ðiː/ whenever it is pronounced as a distinct word, e.g.:
- When it is used for emphasis (This is the hospital for heart surgery.).
- When the speaker pauses between the and the next word (the ... sovereignity).
- In many but not all dialects, when the next word begins with a vowel (the onion) (compare with a vs. an).
The word is generally not pronounced distinctly when attached to a word beginning with a consonant, in which case the e becomes a schwa or is dropped entirely. In dialects that do not pronounce the distinctly before a vowel, a glottal stop is generally inserted (e.g., the Us in the Us festival would still be pronounced differently from thus in thus festival seating should be outlawed).
Etymology
Old English þæt, neuter article; Middle English þæt, definite article.
Translations
- Afrikaans: die
- Arabic: -ال (al-)
- Aragonese: o m, a f, os m plural, as f plural
- Basque: -a
- Catalan:
- Chinese: not used
- Danish: en c, et n, de plural
- Dutch: de m, f and plural, het n
- Esperanto: la
- Finnish: not used; a demonstrative pronoun may be used for emphasis, but generally nothing is needed
- French: le m, la f, les plural
- Frisian: de, it
- Georgian: not used
- German:
- der m nominative, die f nominative, das n nominative
- des -es m genitive, der f genitive, des -es n genitive
- dem -(e) m dative, der f dative, dem -(e) n dative
- den m accusative, die f accusative, das n accusative
- die m plural nominative, die f plural nominative, die n plural nominative
- der m plural genitive, der f plural genitive, der n plural genitive
- den -n m plural dative, den f plural dative, den -n n plural dative
- die m plural accusative, die f plural accusative, die n plural accusative
- Greek (Ancient):
- ὁ m nominative, τὸν m accusative, τοῦ m genitive, τῷ m dative
- οἱ m nominative plural, τοὺς m accusative plural, τῶν m genitive plural, τοῖς m dative plural
- ἡ f nominative, τήν f accusative, τῆς f genitive, τῇ f dative
- αἱ f nominative plural, τάς f accusative plural, τῶν f genitive plural, ταῖς f dative plural
- τὸ n nominative, τὸ n accusative, τοῦ n genitive, τῷ n dative
- τὰ n nominative plural, τὰ n accusative plural, τῶν n genitive plural, τοῖς n dative plural
- Greek (Modern):
- Hawaiian: ka, ke singular; na plural
- Hebrew: -ה (h-)
- Indonesian: si, sang
- Interlingua: [[le#Interlingua|le]
- Irish: an singular, na plural
- Italian: il, lo m, la f; i, gli m plural , le f plural
- Japanese: not used
- Latin: not used
- Maori: te singular, nga plural
- Lingua Franca Nova: la
- Lithuanian: not used
- Norwegian: -en common m, -et n; en common m, ei f, et n
- Polish: not used
- Portuguese: o m, a f, os m plural, as f plural
- Romanian: in form of suffixes added at the end of the word: -ul m, singular, -a f singular, -i m plural , -le f plural; neuter gender words use the masculine form in the singular and the feminine form in the plural
- Russian: not used
- Samoan: le singular, e plural
- Spanish: el m, la f, los m plural, las f plural, lo n
- Swedish: uses articles and/or suffixes at the same time; suffixes are always, and articles are only, needed before an adjective
- Tongan: te
- Turkish: not used; a word not preceded by bir is implicitly definite
- Welsh: 'r, yr, y
- Yiddish: דער m (der), די f (di), דאָס n (das)
