hi everyone I'm your teacher Luke and in this lesson you're going to learn five
useful rules for using the definite article. The definite article is simply
the word 'the' and it causes so many problems for English learners like
yourself. Now, there are of course more rules than just five for the article
'the' but these five are mistakes that I hear my students making all the time so
I hope this video will help you stop making the same mistakes. Okay, let's get
started. Rule number one. We use the article 'the'
when we are talking about a country or a place that is made up of a group of
states, islands, or sometimes countries. Here are some examples we have the
United Kingdom, which is made up of four different countries: England Scotland
Northern Ireland and Wales. I come from Wales by the way. Then we have the United
States, which is made up of 50 different states. Next we have bigger areas in the
world like the Middle East for example, which is made up of 17 different
countries. Then we have countries that are made up of lots of different islands.
So, for example, maybe the Samoan Islands or the Philippines. Both of these
countries are made up of many different islands so we always use the article
'the' before them. We don't use the article 'the' when talking about
countries that are not made up of different groups. So a mistake I commonly
hear is this, "I live in the Korea" or "I want to visit the India". Now both of
these sentences are wrong because Korea and India are not made up of a group of
states, countries, or Islands. They're just one place so we don't use the article
'the' in front of countries like these. Rule number 2. We always use 'the' with
superlatives. So, what is a superlative well a superlative is an adjective which
shows that something has the greatest quality. We use superlatives when we are
comparing one thing among a big group of things. And you can
make superlatives easily by using adjectives plus ~est for shorter words
and most plus adjectives for longer words. Here are some examples we have the
adjective big so if we want to make this a superlative we add ~est on the end and
it becomes biggest, but remember we always use the article 'the' with
superlatives, so it is always "the biggest". For example, "Jupiter is the biggest
planet in our solar system." Another example is with the adjective 'expensive'
now 'expensive' is a longer adjective so to make this a superlative we must add
the word 'most' before the adjective. So it becomes 'most expensive' but again we
always use the article 'the' so it is 'the most expensive'. For example, "Rolexes
are the most expensive watches." Rule number three. We use 'the' when there is
only one of the thing you're talking about in the entire world.
So let's look at some examples, how about this word 'environment' how many
environments are there in the world? Well there's just one so it is always 'the
environment'. Here's a sample sentence "We must protect the environment" or "The
environment is in danger." How about this word 'Internet'.
How many Internet's are there in the world? Well, again, there's only one. There
might be many different internet providers, but there's only one Internet.
So, it is always 'the Internet'. Have a look at this sentence, "The Internet has
changed our lives greatly." or "The best thing about the Internet is that it
connects people from all over the world." Rule number four is really similar to
rule number three but on a smaller scale. So we can use the article 'the' when
there's only one thing you're talking about in a particular area,
like a city or a country. So, for example the word 'government' can become 'the
government' if you're talking about a particular government in a particular
country. For example, "the government just introduced a new law." You can also add an
adjective before the noun like this, "The British government just introduced a
new law." or "The new government just introduced a new law." but remember you
always need to use the article 'the' before the word government if you're talking
about a particular government from a particular country. So remember if
there's only one thing you're talking about from a particular area like a city
or a country then you should use the word 'the' in front of the noun. And rule
number five. We use 'the' when the speaker and listener both know exactly
what is being talked about. For example, I could say "I like the dog with big ear."s
in this sentence both the speaker and the listener know exactly what is being
talked about; that one particular dog. If we change this sentence to "I like dogs
with big ears." then the speaker is not talking about one particular dog but
talking about all dogs with big ears in general. So remember we use 'the' if the
speaker and the listener both know about what is being talked about. If you don't
and you want to make a generalization, then you don't use an article instead
you use the plural noun. Like in this example "I like dogs with big ears." So I
hope this video helped you understand when you can use the article 'the'. There
are more rules than this, but those rules are for more advanced lessons. I will
definitely cover more rules in a later video. Okay so that's it from me thank
you very much for watching and I want you now to make your own sentences in the
comments below using these rules. Okay see you later!