Everything English

A mistake I see often is the use of “the” where none is needed – or where a definite article is optional. Which raises the question: to “the” or not to “the”? Below, examples of both situations:

• Scholars of feminism have argued that the modern woman faces a dilemma when trying to explore her sexuality and, at the same time, break with “traditional” notions of women as sexualized beings.
• Scholars of feminism have argued that modern women face a dilemma when trying to explore their sexuality and, at the same time, break with “traditional” notions of women as sexualized beings.

The previous sentences are functionally equivalent. Neither is more correct than the other. The primary difference is that “the modern woman” refers to an abstract concept. Here, “the modern woman” represents all women living in modern society – and, therefore, also faces the challenges that modern women face. In the second sentence, “modern women” refers, generally, to all women living in modern society. This phrase does not suggest the existence of a prototypical modern woman (as “the modern woman” does). However, it does imply that many women in modern society share certain characteristics (of which the sentence goes on to name one – the difficulty of exploring sexuality while trying to break with notions of women as sexualized beings).

Note that “the modern women” is not correct in this context. The addition of the definite article “the” (to “modern women”) implies a specific group of modern women – say, Modern Woman A, Modern Woman B, and Modern Woman C. It does not suggest the existence of a prototypical modern woman, like “the modern woman”, because it uses the singular – “women”. The phrase “the modern women” would be correct in an instance such as the following:

• Carol Culliver, movie critic for The Women’s Magazine, contends that the modern women depicted in the movie Sex and the City set an ambiguous moral example for young ladies today.

Consider this example, too:

• When American incomes rose after the Second World War, American citizens started buying more goods and experienced higher standards of living.
• When the American incomes rose after the Second World War, the American citizens started buying more goods and experienced higher standards of living.

“The American incomes” and “the American citizens” imply a specific set of American incomes and a specific set of American citizens. This makes the use of the definite article “the” inappropriate because the sentence refers, generally, to a broad phenomenon (increasing incomes and standards of living after World War II). Compare the use of “the” in the previous example with its use in the following example:

• The American citizens who had been living in the apartments at Baab al Shebaab and Al Farouk Streets decided to move when their landlord upped their rent to an unreasonable rate.

Here, “the American citizens” are a handful of specific citizens – say, Citizen A, Citizen B, and Citizen C – who live in a specific place.

• The American incomes listed in the registry of global incomes for the period 1963-1968 shed new light on Wei-li’s study of global inequity.

Here, “the American incomes” refers to a specific set of figures – say, Figure A, Figure B, and Figure C – that are found in a specific place (a registry of global incomes for the period 1963-1968).

One more example:

• At the end of the nineteenth century, American manufacturers took advantage of new technologies to industrialize production. In so doing, the manufacturers aimed to reduce costs.

There are two points to be made here: First, it isn’t necessary to use “the manufacturers” in the second sentence; this is redundant. It is better to use “they”. Second, even if we were to repeat the word “manufacturers” (i.e. say “In so doing, the manufacturers aimed …”), we would do so without the definite article “the”. “The manufacturers” implies a specific group – as in, Manufacturer A, Manufacturer B, and Manufacturer C. Note that the type of specific group suggested by this phrase is not the same as the specific group suggested by the phrase “American manufacturers”. While “American manufacturers” is specific in that “manufacturers” is denoted as “American”, it is not as specific as “the manufacturers”. Hence, a better way of phrasing the above example would be:

• At the end of the nineteenth century, American manufacturers took advantage of new technologies to industrialize production. In so doing, they aimed to reduce costs.