We use the definite article in front of a noun when we believe the listener/reader knows exactly what we are referring to: The Pope is visiting Russia. The moon is very bright tonight. Who is the president of France? This is why we use the definite article with a superlative adjective: He is the tallest boy in the class. The is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. “The” is a small word, but it plays a big role in English! It’s called the definite article, and we use it to talk about specific things — things we already know or can identify. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use “the” naturally with clear examples and easy-to-remember rules. What Is “The”? You're the fifth person to ask me that question. used to say that the particular person or thing being mentioned is the best, most famous, etc. In this use, the is usually given strong pronunciation: Harry's Bar is the place to go. You don't mean you met the Will Smith (= the film star), do you? What is the Definite Article THE? The definite article ‘the’ is used to specify and identify. It answers the question, “ Which one? ” This means ‘the’ can indicate a particular person, place, or thing that you have already mentioned. It can be used with both singular and plural nouns. For example: Basically, an article is an adjective. Like adjectives, articles modify nouns. English has two articles: the and a/an. The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. We call the the definite article and a/an the indefinite article. the = definite article. a/an = indefinite article. They are a type of determiner and they go before a noun. A/an before a noun shows that what is referred to is not already known to the speaker, listener, writer and/or reader (it is the indefinite article): Do you have a car? Do you live in a house? No, actually, I live in an apartment. There are two main ways to pronounce this little word, based largely on what word follows it. If the is followed by a word which begins with a consonant sound (such as water), then it's pronounced \t͟hə\—that is, with the same vowel sound as the word of. to generalise about a whole class or species, usually of plants or animals. A singular noun is used for this purpose. The first example means ‘ The elephant species is hunted.’. Unfortunately, the elephant is still hunted for its tusks. The snowdrop is the first flower to arrive in the new year. There are eight parts of speech in English: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. While the word the has multiple meanings as a definite article, the connection between them is that they refer to a specific person, place, or thing known or implied to be known by the reader or listener. For example.