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} A somewhat interestingly put question semantically, Andrey, but it's a
} start, and your grasp of the English language will continually improve
} if you keep consulting the Oracle about questions like this.
}
} "The" is the definite article of the English language; i.e., that
} adjective used when one is referring to a specific member of a class of
} things. It is distinguished from "a" (which, incidentally, is a Dutch
} letter) in that the specificity of "the" is limited to an inferred
} antecedent, which may be different for speaker and listener.
}
} For example, in the sentence
}
} I skinned the woodchuck who ate my Dutch apple ice cream in three
} different yet equally snarky ways.
}
} "The" is referring to a specific woodchuck, one which can (by
} implication) known to both the speaker and the listener before the
} sentence is spoken or, as in this case, a specified woodchuck (the one
} who ate my Dutch apple ice cream).
}
} If, on the other hand, the sentence read
}
} I skinned a woodchuck who ate my Dutch apple ice cream in pi
} different yet equally snarky ways.
}
} The woodchuck referred to could be *any* woodchuck who happened to eat
} my Dutch apple ice cream.
}
} "The," thus, is highly subjective, in that its meaning can depend on
} the person with whom you are speaking. For example, when you say
}
} I gave the woodchuck a Dutch rub.
}
} to me, I could assume that "the woodchuck" is the Giant Scary Woodchuck
} of Doom, while if you said
}
} I gave the woodchuck a Dutch rub.
}
} to Zadoc, he might assume that "the woodchuck" to which you referred
} was the dead one under the porch.
}
} While in the above sentences, "the" was always more specific than "a,"
} there are some contexts in which "the" can be properly used, but "a"
} can not, i.e.
}
} The Flying Dutchmen own six airplanes and three woodchucks.
}
} Furthermore, "the" is sometimes used to give special emphasis to a word
} or phrase, as in
}
} The Giant Scary Woodchuck of Doom is The Dutch Uncle.
}
} as opposed to
}
} The Giant Scary Woodchuck of Doom is a Dutch uncle.
}
} The equivalent of "the" in most languages is more complex, for example,
} in various contexts, the English word "the" can be equivalent to the
} German words "der," "die," "das," "des," "den," and "dem," or in
} Spanish, "el," "la," "los," etc. As an added bonus to your knowledge,
} supplicant, I'll throw in as a free bonus the Flemish equivalents (this
} is sort of like a Dutch treat): "de" and "het." So, though there is
} only a single English word for this concept, there are treble that in
} Kazakh, sextuple German, and double Dutch.
}
} As a final note, it should be pointed out that "the" sometimes is used
} as an acronym, for example for TetraHydroxyEther. When it is used in
} this context, however, it is almost invariably capitalised.
}
} You owe the Oracle a Dutch woodchuck.
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