English articles part 1: “the”

Did you know that “the” is the most used word in the English language? If you’re a non-native speaker of English, you will know that this tiny word causes some of the biggest headaches when you’re writing an academic paper. You will probably also know that “the” is known as the definite article.

What do we mean by “definiteness”? I think that is one of the hardest things for a non-native speaker to comprehend. “Definiteness” refers to shared knowledge. For example, if I say, “I went to a lecture. The lecture was about grammar,” then we know that “a lecture” and “the lecture” are the same thing. The first time I mention it I use “a,” because you do not know which lecture I am talking about; it could be any lecture. In the second sentence, though, the article has become definite, because we both know which lecture is being referred to. In another example, I could say, “I went to a concert on Saturday. The orchestra played beautifully.” Although we only mention the word “orchestra” once, we associate it with the concert I attended, and I assume you will understand which orchestra I am referring to, so I use the definite article again.

There are many other cases where I assume that we share the same knowledge. For example, there are some things, places or people that are unique: the earth; the equator; the Ganges; the Queen of England. In other cases, I may have used a superlative or an ordinal number: the best; the second. Many organizations also take “the”: the World Health Organisation; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (Notice here that when we refer to an organization by its acronym, then we don’t add “the”: NATO, UNESCO.) Often, the word “of” causes us to use a definite article: the use of this procedure; the completion of the survey; none of the people in the study. Decades, centuries and currencies also take “the”: the 1990s; the twentieth century; the dollar; the rupee.

One major problem is that what is definite in one culture or context may not be definite in another. If I say, “X is the prime minister,” you would need to know which country I’m talking about. The examples above, however, give some idea, and it really is worth working on your articles and checking example sentences online to see if you’ve got it right. Try feeding your sentence into a search engine, and see if similar patterns come up in texts by native speakers.

If you find articles difficult, don’t despair. Remember that your content is the most important thing. If you can get most of the articles right, though, you are well on your way to writing excellent English.

[Julia Miller works at the University of Adelaide and is a contributor to the Grammar Gang blog. The blog is the new electronic home for Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) Help Nest, a forum for discussing difficult questions about grammar, style, and usage.]

Tags: a, definite articles, English, English Help, Grammar, indefinite articles, Nuances of English, Publish and Prosper, the