Please, learn the rules! When do we use “THE” in English? (+ when DON’T we?)

hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy today we are going to completely cover a notorious three-letter word the I'm going to show you the 17 situations in which you do use the and the Seven situations where you do not where you never use that I'm going to tell you whether you should use the pronunciation or the pronunciation some of this might surprise you so pay attention and we'll also discuss all of the exceptions to help you with your studies and to help you put what you've learned into practice I have created a free PDF to go along with today's lesson it's got all of the Lesser notes beautifully written for you you don't have to do it and I've created some exercises so you can put what you've learned into practice if you would like to download that just click on the link in the description box you enter your first name and your email address the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and then after that you will automatically receive all of my free PDFs my news offers and updates let's get started I always like to start with pronunciation because once you have bad pronunciation habits they're really hard to unlearn to break it's better to start correctly from the very beginning so there are two ways to pronounce this word the first way is the which is probably what you're more familiar with this uses the schwa sound and we use this one when the following word the word that comes after it starts with a consonant sound for example the church the trailer the second way to pronounce it is the V we use the when the word that follows starts with a vowel sound the intern the Entertainer we also use it for emphasis that was the best meal I've had in my life you are the greatest you will also sometimes hear native speakers make a bit of a mistake they will say the before a consonant sound and they often do this when they're still thinking about what comes next I will have the salmon please one of the reasons for this is that it's more comfortable to say the with our mouth slightly shut than it is to say the with our mouth open okay now that we've got pronunciation sorted let's do a quick review of why we use the word the in the first place and you might be surprised to know that it is the most used word in the English language notice how I said the most for emphasis that's because it's our definite article let's look at a few of the basic rules for using it we use it to talk about a noun that has already been discussed and is now known to the reader or listener for example I just got a new sofa the sofa's blue we also use it to refer to a specific noun often used with a qualifier for example don't put your phone on the broken table not just any table the broken table broken there is the qualifier we also use it to identify a unique noun when there is only one the sun is out today the result only one son as far as we know it's important to know that we can use the word the with both countable and uncountable nouns countable nouns are nouns that you can physically count like pencils or cars uncountable nouns are things that cannot be counted like bread I can't say I'll have two bread two breads I'll say I have two loaves of bread or slices of bread coffee soap and maths are other examples so those are the ways you're probably familiar with but we need to get into the specifics the nitty-gritty so that you can truly Master this word okay let's look a bit more deeply with more depth on how to use the firstly number one we use the before superlative adjectives and adverbs we had the best time yesterday this has to be the slowest taxi in town number two we use it with Clauses and noun phrases introduced by only my aunt is the only person I trust is this the only Bowl you have notice that because only begins with a vowel sound we say the the only number three with plural country names typically ending in s have you been to the Netherlands or the beaches in the Bahamas are incredible four we use it before country names that include Republic Kingdom Union or state she is currently in the Dominican Republic or where should I go in the United States notice I don't say the United States the United States even though United begins with a vowel when it's spelled we pronounce it with a yeah sound so it's not a vowel sound number five we use it with ordinal numbers used as qualifiers for example this is the second time she's been late or you are the fifth doctor I've talked to about this number six before Compass directions north south east and west and we're talking about specific areas of a town or a city or a country not just north in general for example I've never been to the north of France if I were to say I've never been north of France it would mean that I have never visited any country that is more Northern than France itself another example the south is quite warm this time of year number seven we use the to refer to geographical locations she was born in the Middle East the best coffee grows near the equator we also use it to talk about number eight certain geographical features like oceans the Pacific Ocean Seas the Baltic Sea Rivers the River Nile canals the Panama Canal mountain ranges the Himalayas deserts the Gobi desert Gulfs the Gulf of Mexico forests the Amazon rainforest and peninsulas the Iberian Peninsula number nine we use the before famous buildings and well-known works of art did you go to Paris just to see the Eiffel Tower I should have seen the Mona Lisa number 10 we use the with adjectives that refer to specific groups of people there have been recent calls to tax the rich the rich is a very very specific group of people or the Spanish settled here in 1695. number 11 we used that before family names when referred to as a group The McAllister's moved last year we had dinner with the Smiths last night number 12 we used the with specific times we will celebrate Leo's birthday on the 25th or can you come in the morning 13 we use it to talk about time periods my great-grandmother was born in the 1800s or I wish I had lived in the 16th century 14 we use it to say something about all things referred to by a singular countable noun the wolf is a dangerous animal not a specific wolf but wolves in general an exception to this is man when we're referring to humans man is the most dangerous mammal for example or my cousin plays the violin not a specific violin just the instrument in general number 15 we use it before organizations she works for the U.S Postal Service or the World Health Organization just mentioned something about that 16. we use it when talking about hotels restaurants and pubs don't stay at the Ritz Carlton you should stay at the Hilton or let's have a few pints at the ship and shovel please note we don't use the when the name of an establishment starts with a name for example we should head down to Froggy's Tavern not we should head down to the Froggies Tavern number 17 we use it with newspapers Mandy told me to read this article from the guardian or we haven't read the review in the times yet okay that just about covers all of the instances in which you would use the although there are always exceptions now let's shift gears and learn about when you don't need to use that number one we don't use the with General plural countable and uncountable nouns she buys apples he is baking bread number two we don't use it with names of people do you know John not the John do you know John it's the same with names of holidays for example they have plans for Christmas and New Year's the same goes for companies I stopped using Twitter and Facebook when I got my Apple iPhone universities follow the same rule when Scarlett finishes her undergrad at Oxford she will transfer to Stanford however there's an exception we do use the when the university name starts with the word university like my brother will be teaching at the University of Miami next year most country names also do not use the you should come to England we are flying to Sri Lanka tomorrow follow that rule except for the ones we mentioned in the previous section most names of cities towns and states do not use the pollution is terrible in Los Angeles my grandparents retired in Florida we also don't tend to use the for streets olegs flat is on Lombard Street right before St George Lane the only one key exception is the High Street most British towns will have a high Street it is the main street where most of the shops and restaurants are found we often call it the High Street the shop is on the High Street most lakes also don't carry the will take the kids out to Lake Windermere at the weekend and also names of single mountains so we said mountain ranges like the Himalayas does carry the single mountains do not she really wants to visit Mount Everest finally continents this is my first time in Asia for example Nova needed okay enough names now let's continue with number three we don't use the when talking about academic subjects my daughter is having trouble with maths I studied art we also don't tend to use it when discussing Sports I haven't played baseball since I was young we also don't tend to use it when referring to languages or talking about someone's nationality we've been learning Italian since April I've just found out that I have Japanese ancestry an exception is when we say the Italian language when we make that extremely clear I'm studying the Spanish language I'm learning the English language number six we do not use the when we have a noun followed by a number she and her husband will find you on platform three number seven we don't use the with acronyms we are still waiting to hear what NATO has to say you do use the with initialisms these are acronyms in which you pronounce each letter individually the FBI is investigating the situation notice I said the there because I said f which starts with a vowel sound air there are also some common places and locations that typically do not require the use of an article learning these generally comes with practice but let's look at a few of the most common home she's on her way home work can you pick me up from work today school or university what time do you need to go to school she's in her first year of University Church my friend and I met at church when we were 12 Hospital in British English we say dad's in hospital at the moment although you will hear the used before the hospital in American English I need to go to the hospital I would just say I need to go to hospital okay that is enough for today I know it's a lot of information this is why I've created the PDF view you can study all of the lesson notes you've got the full list with all of the examples plus a quiz so you can test your understanding if you'd like to get that PDF just click on the link in the description box and join the mailing list don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my Instagram my Facebook book my website English with lucy.com there you can also see all of my courses we've got our big General English courses where you can do your B1 and B2 level of English we're also bringing out the C1 very soon very exciting or you can look into something more specific like one of our challenges we've got our business English challenge listening challenge grammar challenge tenses challenge there's a lot of them that's all from me I will see you soon for another lesson foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 1,811,931

Keywords: #Grammar, #EnglishGrammar, #LearnEnglish

Id: SKZSvtf9D_I

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2023