used to refer to somebody/something that has already been mentioned or is easily understood
There were three questions. The first two were relatively easy but the third one was hard.
There was an accident here yesterday. A car hit a tree and the driver was killed.
The heat was getting to be too much for me.
The nights are getting longer.
used to refer to somebody/something that is the only, normal or obvious one of their kind
the Mona Lisa
the Nile
the Queen
What's the matter?
The phone rang.
I patted her on the back.
How's the (= your) baby?
used when explaining which person or thing you mean
the house at the end of the street
The people I met there were very friendly.
It was the best day of my life.
You're the third person to ask me that.
Friday the thirteenth
Alexander the Great
used to refer to a thing in general rather than a particular example
He taught himself to play the violin.
The dolphin is an intelligent animal.
They placed the African elephant on their endangered list.
I heard it on the radio.
I'm usually out during the day.
used with adjectives to refer to a thing or a group of people described by the adjective
With him, you should always expect the unexpected.
the unemployed
the French
used before the plural of somebody’s last name to refer to a whole family or a married couple
Don't forget to invite the Jordans.
used with a unit of measurement to mean ‘every’
My car does forty miles to the gallon.
You get paid by the hour.
enough of something for a particular purpose
I wanted it but I didn't have the money.
used with a unit of time to mean ‘the present’
Why not have the dish of the day?
She's flavour of the month with him.
used, stressing the, to show that the person or thing referred to is famous or important
Sheryl Crow? Not the Sheryl Crow?
At that time London was the place to be.
used to show that two things change to the same degree
The more she thought about it, the more depressed she became.
The less said about the whole thing, the happier I'll be.
Times Higher Education
the US film organization in Los Angeles that presents the Academy Awards. It was created in 1927 by Louis B Mayer and has members who are actors, directors, producers and technical workers. The Academy also decides on technical standards for the film industry.
a small British orchestra, formed in 1958 by Neville Marriner (1924-2016). At first, it played only baroque music, and all its concerts took place in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, London. It then became one of London's most famous small orchestras, playing a wide variety of music.
a person who is on trial for committing a crime
The accused was found innocent.
All the accused have pleaded guilty.
an Act of Parliament in 1701, saying that the children of James I's granddaughter Sophia would be the future kings and queens. The government made this law because the king at that time, William III, had no children, and they wanted to stop the CatholicStuarts from becoming kings and queens. Sophia was a Protestant. She was married to the Elector (= a type of prince) of Hanover. Their son became King George I, the first king of the House of Hanover.
an Act of Parliament in 1534 that made King Henry VIII the head of the Church of England. This left the Pope with no power in England.
either of two Acts of Parliament. The first Act of Union, in 1707, officially joined England and Scotland as one kingdom, called Great Britain, ruled by the parliament in London. The second Act of Union, in 1800, added Ireland to this group of countries, which was then called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
a school in New York for professional actors. It was begun in 1947 by Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford. It became the centre of method acting under its artistic director Lee Strasberg, and its many famous students included Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger.
a British organization formed in 1977 to give economic advice to the British government, foreign governments and other groups. It was named after the 18th-century economist Adam Smith, and shared many of his ideas (for example, about the importance of reducing the extent to which the state is involved in social and commercial affairs). It was associated particularly with the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s in Britain.
