Form and basic
uses of 'the'
1)
The never varies in
form whether it refers to people or things, singular or plural:
a) That's the
man we met last night.
d) They're the men we met
last night.
b) That's the
woman we met last night.
e) They're the women we
met last night.
c) That's the
shirt I bought yesterday. f) They're the shirts I
bought yesterday.
2)
We use the to
refer to something that is known.
3)
The can combine with
singular countable nouns (the book), plural countable nouns (the
books), and uncountable nouns, which are always singular (the furniture).
Write: Supply a
or the in the following text.
We wanted to reach ...........small
village and knew we must be near. Then we saw..............woman just ahead and
some children playing, When we stopped to ask the way, .............woman said
she was ..............stranger herself. We called out to..............children,
but they ignored us. Just then two men came along and we asked them the way. ..............men
didn't know, but at least they were helpful. 'There's ..............signpost a mile along this
road,' one of them said. We drove to..............signpost eagerly. This is
what it said: NORTH POLE 6,000 MILES.
'A/an',
'the' and zero in front of abbreviations: 'the BBC'
1)
We make
abbreviations with the first letters of the most important words. We then treat
these abbreviations like ordinary nouns and use them with a/an, the or
zero:
I've just bought an
LP. (=
a Long Playing record).
We use an + vowel sound (an
LP) and a + consonant sound (a VW= a Volkswagen).
2)
We use a/an and
full stops with titles: She's an M.A. (= Master of Arts)
3)
We use the in
front of institutions when we can't say them as single words. We don't use full
stops: I listen to the news on the BBC. (= the British
Broadcasting Corporation)
We are members of UNESCO. (= the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
4)
We use no article
(zero) with chemical symbols: CO, stands for Carbon Dioxide.
5)
The first letters
of some words are often used as normal words: e.g.
Planes use radar.
(=
RAdio Detection And Ranging)
Write:
Supply
a/an, the
1 Jim got ..........a....
..........B.Sc. (= Bachelor of Science) from Durham University in 1988.
2 Celia is sure
she's seen........................ UFO (= Unidentified Flying Object).
3 ........................EC
(= European Community) does a lot of trade with the rest of the world.
4 I don't know how
much ........................MP (= Member of Parliament) earns.
5 Which countries
belong to ........................NATO? (= North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
6 .......................H2O
is the chemical formula for water.
7 I've used my
computer to learn .......................BASIC (= Beginners' All-purpose
Instruction Code).
8 .......................NASA
(= National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had a setback in 1986.
'The' + nationality
noun: 'the Chinese'
We use the in front of
nationality nouns to refer to 'all the people in general'.
We can divide nationality nouns
into four groups:
1)
the
+
-ese or -ss: the Chinese, the Japanese, the
Portuguese, the Sudanese, the Swiss.
2)
the + plural ending in -s:
-ian: the Austrians, the
Belgians, the Brazilians, the Egyptians, the Russians.
-an: the Americans, the Koreans,
the Mexicans, the Venezuelans, the Zimbabweans.
other -s endings: the
Arabs, the Germans, the Greeks, the Poles, the Scots, the Turks.
3)
Two
forms: the Danes/the Danish, the Spaniards/the Spanish, the Swedes/the
Swedish.
4)
the
+
-ch or -sh: the British, the Dutch, the English,
the French, the Irish, the Welsh.
Write: Rewrite these
sentences using nationality nouns to refer to 'the people in general'.
1 The people from
Portugal are
very different from the people from Spain.
....
The Portuguese are very different from the Spanians..................................
2 The people from
America and
the people from Russia understand each other better.
............................................................................................................................................
3 The people from
Brazil speak
Portuguese, but the people from Mexico speak Spanish.
............................................................................................................................................
4 The people from
Germany and
the people from Japan work very hard.
............................................................................................................................................
5 The people from
Greece buy
ships from the people from Korea.
............................................................................................................................................
6 The people from
Britain and
the people from Holland do a lot of foreign trade.
............................................................................................................................................
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