{"id":4110,"date":"2016-12-16T12:27:59","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T20:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=4110"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:42:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:42:38","slug":"review-english-determiners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/review-english-determiners\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of English Determiners: “The”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The” is a tiny word that creates big problems for a lot of ESL students. This determiner is a bit trickier than “a” and “an.”<\/a> Today, we’ll review\u00a0“the.” A brief overview of the rules for “the” in English appears in the Magoosh TOEFL Blog post “The Amazing ‘The’<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The activity below is directly connected to the information in “The Amazing ‘The’<\/a>.” So be sure to have that original blog post open as you do today’s grammar exercise.<\/p>\n

Activity: The rules for using “the” in English<\/h2>\n

Instructions:<\/strong> Each sentence below uses “the.” Explain the reason why “the” is used in each sentence, based on the rules listed in\u00a0this blog post<\/a>. If “the” appears in a sentence more than once, every instance of “the” will be based on a single rule from the original blog post I just linked. The first three have been completed for you.<\/p>\n

\"review<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. The car is a machine of great convenience, but also of great expense.
      \nReason for using “the”:<\/strong> To make a general statement about a group of things, specifically cars.
      \nEditor’s note:<\/em><\/strong> This answer is based on       Rule 6 of my original post<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. This is the last piece of chocolate we have.
      \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong>To indicate that an individual thing is one-of-a-kind and special.
      \nEditor’s note:<\/strong> This answer is based on       Rule 2 of my original post<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. I want to eat the slightly bigger banana, not one of the smaller ones.
      \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong>To distinguish between more than one similar item.
      \nEditor’s note:<\/strong><\/em> This is based on       Rule 3 of my original post<\/a>.<\/em><\/li>\n
    4. The Andes mountains are a high mountain range in Peru.
      \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"english<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The first person to step onto the moon was Neil Armstrong.
        \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      2. Your son is climbing the tree again! Remember what happened the last time he did that?
        \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      3. The black widow spider is highly poisonous.
        \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      4. The rain that fell today isn’t as heavy as the rain that fell yesterday.
        \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      5. The back door of my house just fell off.
        \nReason for using “the”:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
      6. This house was owned by Abraham Lincoln; yes the Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president.
        \nReason for using “the”:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Notes on the answers:<\/h2>\n

        For many of the sentences in this activity, it’s possible to apply more than one of the rules listed in “The Amazing ‘The.'” If you want to really challenge yourself in this activity, try to list every possible rule that might apply to a given sentence.<\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        “The” is a tiny word that creates big problems for a lot of ESL students. This determiner is a bit trickier than “a” and “an.” Today, we’ll review “the.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-4110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview of English Determiners: "The" - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""The" is a tiny word that creates big problems for a lot of ESL students. This determiner is a bit trickier than "a" and "an." 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4110"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}