<p><strong>Definite Article</strong></p><ul><li>(used, especially before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an): the book you gave me; Come into the house.</li><li>(used to mark a proper noun, natural phenomenon, ship, building, time, point of the compass, branch of endeavor, or field of study as something well-known or unique): the sun; the Alps; the Queen Elizabeth; the past; the West.</li><li>(used with or as part of a title): the Duke of Wellington; the Reverend John Smith.</li><li>(used to mark a noun as indicating the best-known, most approved, most important, most satisfying, etc.): the skiing center of the U.S.; If you're going to work hard, now is the time.</li><li>(used to mark a noun as being used generically): The dog is a quadruped.</li><li>(used in place of a possessive pronoun, to note a part of the body or a personal belonging): He won't be able to play football until the leg mends.</li><li>(used before adjectives that are used substantively, to note an individual, a class or number of individuals, or an abstract idea): to visit the sick; from the sublime to the ridiculous.</li><li>(used before a modifying adjective to specify or limit its modifying effect): He took the wrong road and drove miles out of his way.</li><li>(used to indicate one particular decade of a lifetime or of a century): the sixties; the Gay Nineties.</li><li>(one of many of a class or type, as of a manufactured item, as opposed to an individual one): Did you listen to the radio last night?</li></ul>