The (1)

The (1)

A. We use the ... when there is only one of something:

* What is the longest river in the world? (there is only one longest river)

* The earth goes round the sun and the moon goes round the earth.

* I'm going away at the end of this month.

Don't forget the:

* Paris is the capital of France. (not 'Paris is capital of...')

But we use a/an to say what kind of thing something is (see Unit 70C). Compare the and a:

* The sun is a star. (= one of many stars)

* The hotel we stayed at was a very nice hotel.

B. We say: the sky the sea the ground the country the environment:

* We looked up at all the stars in the sky. (not 'in sky')

* Would you rather live in a town or in the country?

* We must do more to protect the environment. (= the natural world around us)

Note that we say space (without 'the') when we mean 'space in the universe':

* There are millions of stars in space. (not 'in the space')

but * I tried to park my car but the space was too small.

C. We use the before same (the same):

* Your pullover is the same colour as mine. (not 'is same colour')

* These two photographs are the same. (not 'are same')

D. We say: (go to) the cinema, the theatre:

* I often go to the cinema but I haven't been to the theatre for ages.

When we say the cinema/the theatre, we do not necessarily mean one particular cinema or theatre.

We usually say the radio, but television (without 'the'):

* I often listen to the radio.

* We heard the news on the radio.

* I often watch television.

* We watched the news on television.

but * Can you turn off the television, please? (= the television set)

Compare a:

* There isn't a theatre in this town.

* I'm going to buy a new radio/television (set).

E. Breakfast lunch dinner

We do not normally use the with the names of meals (breakfast, lunch etc.):

* What did you have for breakfast?

* We had lunch in a very nice restaurant.

* What time is dinner?

But we use a if there is an adjective before breakfast, lunch etc.:

We had a very nice lunch. (not 'we had very nice lunch')

F. Platform 5 Room 126 etc.

We do not use 'the' before noun + number. For example, we say:

* Our train leaves from Platform 5. (not 'the Platform 5')

* (in a shop) Have you got these shoes in size 43? (not 'the size 43')

In the same way, we say: Room 126 (in a hotel) page 29 (of a book) Section A etc.