beginning with a common noun followed by of may take the article, as in the Isle of Wight or the Isle of Portland (compare Christmas Island), same applies to names of institutions: Cambridge University, but the University of Cambridge.continents, individual islands, administrative units and settlements mostly do not take a 'the' article ( Europe, Jura, Austria (but the Republic of Austria), Scandinavia, Yorkshire (but the County of York), Madrid).notable natural landmarks – rivers, seas, mountain ranges, deserts, island groups ( archipelagoes) and so on – are generally used with a 'the' definite article ( the Rhine, the North Sea, the Alps, the Sahara, the Hebrides).Geographic usageĪn area in which the use or non-use of the is sometimes problematic is with geographic names:

In Middle English, these had all merged into þe, the ancestor of the Modern English word the. Old English had a definite article se (in the masculine gender), sēo (feminine), and þæt (neuter).

The and that are common developments from the same Old English system. The, as in phrases like 'the more the better', has a distinct origin and etymology and by chance has evolved to be identical to the definite article. Sometimes the word 'the' is pronounced /ðiː/, with stress, to emphasise that something is unique: 'he is the expert', not just 'an' expert in a field.ĭefinite article principles in English are described under ' Use of articles'. Modern American and New Zealand English have an increasing tendency to limit usage of /ðiː/ pronunciation and use /ðə/, even before a vowel. In most dialects, 'the' is pronounced as /ðə/ (with the voiced dental fricative /ð/ followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as /ðiː/ (homophone of pronoun thee) when followed by a vowel sound or used as an emphatic form. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender.

The is the most frequently used word in the English language studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. The ( / ð ə, ð iː/ ( listen)) is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers.

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