Editing The (section)

== Pronunciation ==
In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as {{IPAc-en|ð|ə|audio=En-us-the-unstressed.ogg}} (with the [[voiced dental fricative]] {{IPA|/ð/}} followed by a [[schwa]]) when followed by a [[consonant]] sound, and as {{IPAc-en|ð|iː|audio=En-us-the-stressed.ogg}} (homophone of the archaic pronoun ''[[thee]]'') when followed by a vowel sound or used as an [[Weak and strong forms in English|emphatic form]].<ref name=mw>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the|work=Merriam Webster Online Dictionary|title=the – definition}}</ref>

Modern [[American English|American]] and [[New Zealand English]] have an increasing tendency to limit usage of {{IPA|/ðiː/}} pronunciation and use {{IPA|/ðə/}}, even before a vowel.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ladefoged|first1=Peter|author-link=Peter Ladefoged|last2=Johnson|first2=Keith|year=2010|title=A Course in Phonetics|edition=6th|place=Boston|publisher=Wadsworth|page=110}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hay|first1=Jennifer|year=2008|title=New Zealand English|url=https://archive.org/details/newzealandenglis00hayj|url-access=limited|place=Edinburgh|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/newzealandenglis00hayj/page/n56 44]}}</ref>

Sometimes the word "the" is pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|ð|iː}}, with stress, to emphasise that something is unique: "he is {{em|the}} first", not just "one of the" first.{{cn|date=July 2024}}