the

I

stressed [[t]ði[/t]] unstressed before a consonant [[t]ðə,[/t]] unstressed before a vowel [[t]ði[/t]]

definite article.

1) fun (used, esp. before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an):

the book you gave me[/ex]

2) fun (used to mark a noun as indicating something well-known or unique):

the Alps[/ex]

3) fun (used with or as part of a title):

the Duke of Wellington[/ex]

4) fun (used to mark a noun as indicating the best-known, most approved, most important, etc.):

the place to ski[/ex]

5) fun (used to mark a noun as being used generically):

The dog is a quadruped[/ex]

6) fun (used in place of a possessive pronoun, to note a part of the body or a personal belonging):

He was shot in the arm[/ex]

7) fun (used before adjectives that are used substantively, to note an individual, a class or number of individuals, or an abstract idea):

to visit the sick; from the sublime to the ridiculous[/ex]

8) fun (used to indicate one particular decade of a lifetime or of a century):

the sixties[/ex]

9) fun enough:

She didn't have the courage to leave[/ex]

10) fun (used distributively, to note any one separately); a or an:

at one dollar the pound[/ex]

•

Etymology: bef. 900; ME, late OE, r. sēnom. sing. masc. article. Cf. that II

the

(before a consonanttə; before a voweltē), adv.

1) fun (used to modify an adjective or adverb in the comparative degree and to signify “in or by that,”“on that account,”“in or by so much,” or “in some or any degree”):

He's been on vacation and looks the better for it[/ex]

2) fun (used in correlative constructions to modify an adjective or adverb in the comparative degree, in one instance with relative force and in the other with demonstrative force, and signifying “by how much … by so much” or “in what degree … in that degree”):

the more the merrier[/ex]

•

Etymology: bef. 900; ME; OE thē, thȳ, instrumental case of demonstrative pronoun. Cf. that, lest