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4thly, The definite article is used to distinguish the explicative from the determinative sense. In the former case it is rarely employed: in the latter it should never be omitted, unless when something still more definite supplies its place. “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.” Here the relative clause is explicative, and not restrictive; all men being “born of a woman;” the definite article therefore is not employed. “The man” would imply that all men are not thus born; and would confine the predicating clause to those who are. In the latter sense, that may, without any alteration in the phraseology, be substituted for the article; for the man, and that man, are in this instance equivalent.

5thly, The definite article is often used to denote the measure of excess. “The more you study, the more learned you will become;” that is, “by how much the more you study, by so much the more learned you will become.” “The wiser, the better;” “that (by that) wiser, that (by that) better.” There also that and the may be considered as equivalent; and the Latins accordingly said “eo melior.”