Refer I ðə Thing Car Person Definite Article

• there were three questions. the first two were relatively easy but the third one was hard.
• there was an accident here yesterday. a car hit a tree and the driver was killed.
• the heat was getting to be too much for me.
• the nights are getting longer.

the

1. used to refer to somebody/something that has already been mentioned or is easily understood
• There were three questions. The first two were relatively easy but the third one was hard.
• There was an accident here yesterday. A car hit a tree and the driver was killed.
• The heat was getting to be too much for me.
• The nights are getting longer.
2. used to refer to somebody/something that is the only, normal or obvious one of their kind
• the Mona Lisa
• the Nile
• the Queen
• What's the matter?
• The phone rang.
• I patted her on the back.
• How's the (= your) baby?
3. used when explaining which person or thing you mean
• the house at the end of the street
• The people I met there were very friendly.
• It was the best day of my life.
• You're the third person to ask me that.
• Friday the thirteenth
• Alexander the Great
4. used to refer to a thing in general rather than a particular example
• He taught himself to play the violin.
• The dolphin is an intelligent animal.
• They placed the African elephant on their endangered list.
• I heard it on the radio.
• I'm usually out during the day.
5. used with adjectives to refer to a thing or a group of people described by the adjective
• With him, you should always expect the unexpected.
• the unemployed
• the French
6. used before the plural of somebody’s last name to refer to a whole family or a married couple
• Don't forget to invite the Jordans.
7. enough of something for a particular purpose
• I wanted it but I didn't have the money.
8. used with a unit of measurement to mean ‘every’
• My car does forty miles to the gallon.
• You get paid by the hour.
9. used with a unit of time to mean ‘the present’
• Why not have the dish of the day?
• She's flavour of the month with him.
10. used, stressing the, to show that the person or thing referred to is famous or important
• Sheryl Crow? Not the Sheryl Crow?
• At that time London was the place to be.
11. used to show that two things change to the same degree
• The more she thought about it, the more depressed she became.
• The less said about the whole thing, the happier I'll be.

Word Origin

• Old English se, sēo, thæt, ultimately superseded by forms from Northumbrian and North Mercian thē, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch de, dat, and German der, die, das.