' the 'Little word. Little bastard.

Native Spanish speakers / English learners have a lot of difficulty mastering the use of the

little word, "the".

The good news is that it's very easy to identify the cause of this issue, and from there work to

overcome the error.

"The", in grammar terms, is what we call an 'article'. What that means is not important. What's important is a) knowing what "the" corresponds to in Spanish, and b) how it

corresponds.

It's in (b) that most of the errors are made.

It's easy to understand that "the" means "el", "la", "los" or "las".

What is less clear is the fact that Spanish uses "el", "la", "los" or "las" for both specific things

and things in general.

English uses "the" for only specific things:

Los mexicanos son de México.Mexicans are from Mexico.

The Mexicans are from Mexico.

Los mexicanos que yo conozco son de México.The Mexicans that I know are from Mexico

¿Te gustan las tortas ahogadas?Do you like tortas ahogadas?

Do you like the tortas ahogadas?

¿Te gustaron las tortas ahogadas que comimos ayer?

Did you like the tortas ahogadas that we ate yesterday?

El lunes es mi día favorito.Monday us my favorite day.

The Monday is my favorite day.

Nos reunimos el ultimo lunes de cada mes.We get together the last Monday of every

month.

Native speakers have "general" and "specific" programmed according to

context:

I prefer Coke over Pepsi.I prefer the Coke over the Pepsi.

I took a taste test yesterday at Soriana between Coke and Pepsi, and I couldn't believe it, but I actually liked the Pepsi

more than the Coke.

I actually liked (the sample they gave me containing Pepsi) more than (the

sample containing Coke).