Articles - The

The Usage of the "THE" :P

Ok, first of all sorry for the confusing title. In this blog we shall discuss where we should use the article "The". Some of these statements are really make you confuse and seems they are opposing each other. Please try to read this for two or three times. so that you can understand THE concept easily.

Before superlative forms

Ex :

The Tallest
The Best
The most beautiful

Before double comparatives

✔ The higher you go, the colder you gets
✔ The harder you work, the better rank you get in Bank Exams
✔The more you earn, the more you want

When the comparison is between the two and either of the subjects is Highlighted

✔ Sachin is the greater of the two cricketers
✔ Of the two cricketers sachin is the greater
Note :

☓ Sachin is the greater than lara

Now whats the difference between the first statement and the third? why the first one is correct and third one is wrong? because in the 3rd statement, we have mentioned the Person's name. But in the first statement we didnt.

Before positive form in apposition

Alexander, the great
Manmohan Singh, the prime minister etc

Before musical instruments

The Guitar
The Tabla
The voilin etc

Before a Proper noun when used as a Common noun

Nelson mandela is The Gandhi of South Africa
Kalidasa is The Shakespeare of India

Before some adjectives to make them nouns

Ex:

The Blind
The Dead
The Rich
The Poor
Usage :

The doctor restored sight to the blind (Here there is no need to mention "The Blind Person" because, the term Blind itself represents the Blind person, so its the adjective which is used as the noun.)
The rich should not mock at the poor
✔ Jesus rose from the Dead
☓ Jesus rose from Dead

Before some Languages, to make them PEOPLE.

☓ English ruled over India for many Years
✔ The English Ruled over India for Many Years
☓ French are good at heart
✔ The French are good at heart

When a noun's quality is STRESSED

☓ We cannot remove warrior in him
✔ We cannot remove the warrior in him
☓ Mother in her aroused when she saw a Crying Baby
✔ The mother in her aroused when she saw a Crying Baby

Before Ordinal numbers

The First
The Third
The Tenth, etc
Ex:

The first and the second posts of this blog

Note : Little clarification for those people who have no idea about Ordinal numbers

One, Two, Three, Four → Cardinal Numbers
First, Second, Third → Ordinal Numbers

Before the names of Oceans, Seas, Rivers, Canals, Deserts, Groups of Mountains and Groups of Islands

Note : Dont use "The" for single mountain or single Island (Thats the reason why we've underlined these two statements)
Ex :

✔ The Pacific
✔ The Red Sea
✔ The Sahara
✔ The Himalayas
Usage :

✔ Kolkata is on the banks of the Hoogli
☓ Kolkata is on the banks of the River Hoogli
✔ Kolkata is on the banks of river Hoogli
✔ Kolkata is on the banks of the Hoogli river

Dont be confued, please read the above sentences properly and understand them

Before Holy Books

The Ramayana
The Quran
The Bible

Usage:

My father reads the Bible everyday

Before the names of the Things, which are unique in nature

The Sun
The moon
The Sky
The ________ (You can add your name here :P kidding)

Before the names of Planets and Satellites

The Mars
The Earth

Note : Little clarification for those people who confuses between the words Planet and Satellites

Planets rotates around the Sun
Satellites rotates around Planets

In apposition, when name precedes the position (Important)

Manmohan singh, the prime minister is on a two day tour to srilanka
In correction of sentences, they've given this model for a number of times. The above sentence means, Manmohan singh, who is the prime minister is on a two day tour to srilanka.
Some time they will give like this

The X, the Y is on a two day tour to srilanka

Whats wrong with this sentence? You can remove THE at the begining or, just put ARE in the place of IS, so that the sentence tells about TWO different persons one is X and the second one is Y

Before the names of News Papers

The Indian Express
The Hindu etc

Before the names of some countries

The U.S.A
The UAE
The Netherlands
The Congo etc