# English Majors: "The" is now an adj??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456 "2003-03-11T02:07:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/21 "2003-03-11T12:49:26Z")
Jinx, take a few courses in linguistics (or read some books about it), enough that you understand some of the basics of generative grammar. The traditional division of the words of English (or of any other language) into the standard eight parts of speech is, at best, a rough first pass at dividing up the words into similar categories. Yes, in some ways, articles are a separate category with their own rules, but, yes, in some ways they work like adjectives in that they modify the nouns which they proceed. There’s no way for me to tell from your sketchy description whether the categories that this teacher is teaching his or her students are more useful than the standard division into eight parts of speech. You sound like the parent of a child who comes home from school and says, “Hey, Mom, the teacher taught us how to do arithmetic in binary today. See, if you add 101101 and 110110, you get 1100011.” You say, “What, that’s not true. If you add 101101 and 110110, you get 211211. What kind of nonsense is that teacher telling you now?” When your kid says, “No, the addition is done in binary, not in decimal,” you say, “Nonsense, there’s only one kind of numbers. Your teacher is an evil person for not teaching you to calculate right, and I’m going to get her fired for it.” ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/22 "2003-03-11T13:14:25Z")
[hijack] “The” is obviously a definite article, but I often confuse people when I tell them that “yes” is considered an adverb. I know it is because the dictionary tells me so, but I really don’t understand _why_ it’s an adverb… [/hijack] Barry ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/23 "2003-03-11T14:37:21Z")
I never heard that _the_ was an adjective, but it can be an adverb in phrases like “the more the merrier”, meaning “to this extent”, or “to the extent that”. Actually that’s a completely different word that has nothing to do with the definite article. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/24 "2003-03-11T15:46:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by godzillatemple \* > **"The" is obviously a definite article, but I often confuse people when I tell them that “yes” is considered an adverb. I know it is because the dictionary tells me so, but I really don’t understand _why_ it’s an adverb…** _Yes_ is an adverb because, like all adverbs, it > [@](#): > > is a word or a term used to modify the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb; that is, the adverb is an adjunct of the verb, the adjective, and the adverb itself . . . . The adverb may likewise modify a phrase . . . . In the main, the adverb, like the adjective, may condense or economize expression by doing the work of a phrase in much of its usage . . . . John B. Opdycke, _Harper’s English Grammar_ 162 (1965). _Yes_ is an “adverb of affirmation,” which > [@](#): > > as the name implies, is one that indicates assent or approval, as **absolutely** , **amen** , **certainly** , **doubtless** , **indeed** , **indubitably** , **quite** , **really** , **surely** , **truly** , **undoubtedly** , **verily** , **yes**. . . . Inasmuch as such adverbial forms modify or influence whole expressions rather than single words, they are sometimes called **independent** or **absolute** or **exclamatory** adverbs. . . . Such affirmative adverbs as **yes** , **certainly** , **quite** , **surely** , and such negative adverbs as **no** , **never** , **not at all** are sometimes called responsives . . . . _Id._ at 166. > [@](#): > > Like **yes** , **no** may imply or stand for a complete statement, as **Are you going? No** , in which **No** stands for **I am not** , and **Yes** would stand for **I am**. Neither **yes** nor **no** is used in direct relation with a verb, therefore, but rather as a substitute for a complete statement. You do not say **I will yes go** and **I will no got** but **I will go** and **I will not go**. > > . . . . Standing at the beginning of a statement, **yes** and **no** are usually unattached as far as modification is concerned, and are thus independent or absolute or introductory adverbs. They are sometimes called **responsives** , and this defines their chief use. _Id._ at 173-74 (cross-reference omitted). ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/25 "2003-03-11T16:58:28Z")
Another Linguistics major checking in here. _The_ is considered a _Determiner_, which is a subclass of _adjectives_. As a _determiner_, it does function a bit differently than your “standard” adjectives. For one thing, in English you would never say, “Book the” although you can (occasionally) put the standard adjectives after the nouns they modify. If you want to get deeper into this, consider that words such as _both_ and _all_ belong to another subclass called _predeterminers_. ---
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456/26 "2003-03-11T17:10:10Z")
This thread is really just getting into a question of taxonomy. Is _the_ an article? an adjective? a determiner? How about all three. The terms are not mutually exclusive: > [@](#): > > **ARTICLES** Words used to identify nouns are called _determiners_, and the _articles_ _a/an_ (the _indefinite articles_) and _the_ (the _definite article_) are perhaps the most frequent of the determiners in English. In some grammars _articles_ are considered a single part of speech; in others they are classed as adjectives. Kenneth G. Wilson, _The Columbia Guide to Standard Written English_ 40 (1993). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-majors-the-is-now-an-adj/160456.md?page=1)