Grammer

Question

What is the best and easiest way to know when one should or should notuse the article "the"?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There is no easy way to know it. There are some golden rules but, unfortunately, there are numerous exceptions. Observe carefully texts when you read. This is the best way to be familiar with articles and other determiners. Good luck!

CalifJim · Answer

osanWhat is the best and easiest way to know when one should or should not use the article "the"?

Tough question. Even the easiest way is not necessarily easy.

If you, as the speaker, believe you have specified in words which entity in the real world you are talking about so exactly that your listener will have no doubt about which entity you are talking about, you use "the".

Another way of saying this is: You use "the" when there is no choice of entities. Which one is obvious.

What follows is a group of examples to illustrate this principle in a few elementary ways. These should at least get you started toward understanding the concepts.

___________________

Suppose you and a friend are standing in a room together. There is only one table in the room. You are holding a key. Your friend can see the key and the table. You say,

I'll leave the key on the table.

By doing so, you communicate that you believe that your friend will know which key and which table you are referring to in this situation, because your friend can see the key and the table and there is only one key and one table. There is no possibility that your friend will be confused about which key or which table you are talking about. He can see them both, and there's only one of each.
___________________

But your friend doesn't even have to see with his own eyes what you're talking about. He may know what you're talking about because of previous experiences.

Suppose he can't see the key, but he knows from a previous arrangement with you that you borrowed his car. Here's how that works: You return the car. When you enter his house with the key, he is busy in another room, so he can't see you. You say -- in a loud voice so he can hear you from the other room,

I'll leave the key on the table.

By doing so, you again communicate that you believe your friend will know which key and which table you are referring to, but not, in this case, because he can see them. Your friend knows which key, you assume, because he gave you that key when you borrowed his car. Your friend knows which table, you assume, because it's his house and he knows that the room you are in when you say this has only one table.
_________________

Further, the key and the table don't even have to be present in the situation. You can just imagine them, as you may do in a problem in science, let's say. To present such a problem, you start with "a key" and "a table", like this. You say to your friend,

Suppose you had a key that weighed 5 grams and held it one meter above a table.

Now you have established the existence of an imaginary key (any key) and an imaginary table (any table). Here it does not matter which key or which table, as long as the parameters of the problem hold true: "5 grams" and "one meter above". That's why it's a, not the.

Your friend now has a mental picture of this key and this table. He selects which key and which table he wants to imagine, because the words a key and a table suggest that he should make these choices on his own.

Now you continue your problem:

How many seconds will it take the key to strike the table when you release it?

Even though the key and the table are imaginary, you are communicating that you believe your friend has enough information to understand which key and which table you are talking about, namely, the very same key and the very same table you have just asked him to choose to imagine in the first part of the problem.
___________________

You may have to think about these for a while before they start to make sense, but read the explanations several times and you may begin to understand.

CJ

Grammer

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions