Pronunciation of "The" in different cases

Added: 2026-05-25

The pronunciation of the word 'the' changes based on the sound of the word that follows it: it is pronounced as 'thuh' (schwa sound) before consonant sounds and as 'thee' (long 'e' sound) before vowel sounds. For example, 'the MBA student' uses 'thuh' because 'MBA' starts with a consonant, while 'the UN' uses 'thee' because 'UN' starts with a vowel sound.