the

See also thé, thè, thế, thể, and þe

English

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Wikipedia

Alternative forms

  • ðe (obsolete), þe (obsolete), ẏe(obsolete), ẏe (archaic): variant spelling of the.
  • ye (archaic)

Pronunciation

  • (when stressed or prevocalic)
  • (when unstressed and preconsonantal)
    • enPR: thə, IPA: /ðə/, X-SAMPA: /D@/ (but see notes below)
    • Audio (CA)
      		(file)
    • Audio (US)
      		(file)
    • Rhymes: (generally not applicable as the unstressed variant is never used to terminate a phrase)
pronunciation notes

The word the is commonly pronounced /ðiː/ whenever it is pronounced as a distinct word, e.g.:

  • When it is used for emphasis (This is the hospital for heart surgery.).
  • When the speaker pauses between the and the next word (the … sovereignty).
  • In many but not all dialects, when the next word begins with a vowel sound (the onion) (compare with a vs. an).

The word is generally pronounced indistinctly as /ðə/ or merely /ð/ in other situations, such as when attached to a word beginning with a consonant sound.
"the" vs. "ye"

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Old English þē (“the, that”, demonstrative pronoun), a late variant of sē (“that, the”). Originally masculine nominative, in Middle English it superseded all previous Old English forms (sē, sēo, þæt, þā), from Proto-Germanic *sa (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *só, *to-, *tód (“demonstrative pronoun”). Cognate with Dutch de, die (“the, that”), Low German de, dat (“the, that”), German der, die, das (“the, that”), Danish den (“the, that”), Swedish den (“the, that”), Icelandic það (“that”).

Article

the

  1. Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it articulates is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already completely specified. [from 10th c.]
    I’m reading the book. (Compare I’m reading a book.)
    The street in front of your house. (Compare A street in Paris.)
    The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird.
  2. Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. [from 10th c.]
    No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe.
    God save the Queen!
  3. With a superlative, it and that superlative refer to one object. [from 9th c.]
    That apple pie was the best.
  4. Introducing a term to be taken generically; preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. [from 9th c.]
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 536:
      Stern and God-fearing, the Afrikaner takes his religion seriously.
  5. Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. [from 9th c.]
    Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
  6. Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is most usually of concern, or most common or familiar. [from 12th c.]
    No one in the whole country had seen it before.
    I don't think I'll get to it until the morning.
  7. Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. [from 12th c.]
    A stone hit him on the head. (= “A stone hit him on his head.”)
  8. When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. [from 18th c.]
    That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery.
Quotations
Usage notes
Usage notes (with proper nouns)

The word the precedes proper nouns in a number of cases, although most proper nouns use no article. There are always exceptions. See also Appendix:English proper nouns for more information.

Countries
Place names
    • Some place names use a definite article
  • All oceans (The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean)
  • All seas (The Red Sea, The Bering Sea, The Caribbean Sea), and straits (The Strait of Magellan, the Bering Strait, The Bosphorus)
  • All rivers (The Amazon, The Nile, The Mississippi, The Seine, The Yangtze), canals (The Panama Canal, The Suez Canal) and deltas (The Nile Delta, The Orinoco Delta, The Colorado River Delta)
  • All art galleries (The Tate, The Louvre, The Smithsonian American Art Museum), all museums with the word museum in the name (The National Museum of Natural History, The British Museums)
  • Most English-language newspapers (The New York Times, The Guardian, The Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal)
Bands
Universities
    • University names beginning with the word "University", and some other university names, are used with the:
  • The University of North Carolina
  • The Ohio State University
Usage notes (with adjectives)
  • When used before an adjective which is not followed by a noun, it may refer to a group of people for which the adjective is appropriate:
    • the Scottish = Scots
    • the rich = rich people (considered as a group)
Derived terms
terms derived from the (determiner)
Translations
article
used as an alternative to a possessive pronoun before body parts
this
stressed, indicating that the object in question is the only one worthy of attention
with an adjectival noun, as in “the hungry” to mean “hungry people”
with a superlative
used with the name of a member of a class to refer to all things in that class

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Old English þȳ (“by that, after that, whereby”), originally the instrumental case of the demonstratives sē (masculine) and þæt (neuter). Cognate with Dutch des te ("the, the more"), German desto ("the, all the more"), Norwegian fordi ("because"), Icelandic því (“because”).

Adverb

the (not comparable)

  1. With a comparative or more and a verb phrase, establishes a parallel with one or more other such comparatives.
    The hotter, the better.
    The more I think about it, the weaker it looks.
    The more money donated, the more books purchased, and the more happy children.
    It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it.
  2. (Discuss(+) this sense) With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none.
    It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it.
    It was a difficult time, and I’m none the wiser for it.
    I'm much the wiser for having had a difficult time like that.
Translations
the + ～comparative, the + comparative
indicating a result like the comparative
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

See also

Statistics

Anagrams

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Crimean Gothic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *sa, *sō, *þat.

Article

the

  1. the
    • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:
      omnibus vero dictionibus praeponebat articulum tho aut the

Usage notes

While it is likely that Crimean Gothic retained grammatical gender, de Busbecq's letter does not mention which articles are used with which words, making it impossible to reconstruct their gender.

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Danish

Noun

the c

  1. Archaic spelling of te. ("tea")
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Interlingua

Pronunciation

Noun

the (plural thes)

  1. tea
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Irish

Pronunciation

Adjective

the

  1. Mutated form of te.
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Murrinh-Patha

Noun

the

  1. ear

See also

  • ye (incorporated noun)

References

  • 2003, Mark Abley, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages.
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Old Saxon

Etymology

Replaced the original masculine and feminine nominative forms from Proto-Germanic *sa, by analogy with the adjective inflection. Compare also Old High German ther, der where the same process occurred.

Determiner

thē m

  1. that, that one

Declension

Declension of thē
Singular Plural
Masculine Neuter Feminine
nominative the that thiu thia
accusative thena that thia thia
genitive thes thes thera thero
dative themu themu theru them
instrumental thiu


Descendants

  • Low German: de
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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From English the, which sounds similar to Serbo-Croatian da.

Conjunction

the (no known Cyrillic variant)

  1. (Internet slang) Alternative spelling of da.
    neki kreten the ih drka emotivno
    some jerk to fuck with them emotionally
    the ovo okačim na fb wall, garant ne bih opstala od borKINJa za ženska prava
    if I posted this on FB wall, I surelly wouldn't survive the women rights fighters
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Swedish

Noun

the n

  1. Alternative spelling of te. (tea)
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Last modified on 20 May 2013, at 02:17