All Ears English Podcast | Real English Vocabulary | Conversation | American Culture

When should you use the word ‘the’ in English? Today, in #1 of the Top 15 Fixes series, we discuss the most common article in the English language, ‘the’! Come back to our site   Taking IELTS? Get our free IELTS video training now   Use if the word ‘the’ can be a confusing. But there are some rules that can help you get it right most of the time.   The first requires that you consider whether the focus is on something specific, or something more general. When focused on specific items, use ‘the’. If you’re sitting at a table, talking about the food that is actually in front of you, you might say: “Do you like the turkey?” “Yes, the turkey is great!” “Could you please pass the salt?” When focused on more general terms, you don’t use ‘the’. If you’re discussing food in general, you might say: “Do you like turkey?” “Have you tried pumpkin pie?” “Cranberries are too tart for me.”   Geographical terms can also be tricky for ‘the’. In most cases, large, well-known geographic places will have ‘the': the cont