When to Use "The"
"The" is used with both singular and plural nouns and with both countable and uncountable nouns when the noun is specific.
- The book that I read last night was great.
- In this sentence, "book" is a singular, countable noun. It is also specific because of the phrase “that I read last night.” The writer and reader (or speaker and listener) know which book is being referred to.
- The books assigned for this class are very useful.
- In this sentence, "books" is a plural, countable noun. It is also specific because of the phrase “for this class.” The writer and reader (or speaker and listener) know which books are being referred to.
- The advice you gave me was very helpful.
- In this sentence, "advice" is an uncountable noun. However, it is specific because of the phrase “you gave me.” It is clear which piece of advice was helpful.
Here are some more specific rules:
"The" is used in the following categories of proper nouns:
- Museums and art galleries: the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Buildings: the Empire State Building, the Willis Tower
- Seas and oceans: the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean
- Rivers: the Mississippi, the Nile
- Deserts: the Sahara Desert, the Sonora Desert
- Periods and events in history: the Dark Ages, the Civil War
- Bridges: the London Bridge, the Mackinac Bridge
- Parts of a country: the South, the Upper Midwest
In general, use "the" with plural proper nouns.
- the Great Lakes
- the French
- the Rockies (as in the Rocky Mountains)
"The" is often used with proper nouns that include an “of” phrase.
- the United States of America
- the University of Minnesota
- the International Swimming Hall of Fame
Use "the" when the noun being referred to is unique because of our understanding of the world.
- The Earth moves around the sun.
- Wolves howl at the moon.
Use "the" when a noun can be made specific from a previous mention in the text. This is also known as second or subsequent mention.
- My son bought a cat. I am looking after the cat while he is on vacation.
- I read a good book. The book was about how to use articles correctly in English.
"The" is used with superlative adjectives, which are necessarily unique (the first, the second, the biggest, the smallest, the next, the only, etc.).
- It was the first study to address the issue.
- She was the weakest participant.
- He was the only person to drop out of the study.
Biber et al. (1999) found that "the" is about twice as common as "a" or "an" in academic writing. This may be because writers at this level often focus on overall ideas and categories (generic reference, usually no article) and on specific references (definite reference, the article "the").
- Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of written and spoken English. Pearson.
