Hi, I'm Phil from BBC Learning English.
I'm going to tell you three facts about 'the'.
We use 'the' when referring to a specific thing
and both you and the person you're talking
to know which one you mean. Please pass me
the milk.
We can see the bottle so we know
it's that one. Number 2...
We don't use 'the' when we're talking about something
in general. For example, I love chocolate.
Number 3...
We don't use 'the' when it doesn't matter which
thing we're talking about.
We usually use 'a' or 'an', here. Give me a cup
of tea, I don't care which cup,
any cup will do.