There are words in the English language that require the word ‘the’ attached to it. Although it seems trivial, using ‘the’ gives the reader a clue that the word ‘the’ is attached to is a specific noun. One common debate relating to this is if the word ‘environment’ needs a ‘the’.
To keep your sentence clear, you should almost always have ‘the’ in front of ‘environment’, making the phrase ‘the environment’. It’s easier to read, and it also flows better. Without having the ‘the’ in there, you’d sound very vague. The use of ‘the’ is often overlooked, but it’s an essential word used to describe a specific noun.
The rest of this article will cover why it’s ‘the environment’, and how to use it in a sentence.
Why It’s ‘The Environment’
If I were to say “I care about environment”, that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? Now if I were to say “I care about the environment”, that makes much more sense. It flows much better, and it gives you, the reader, specific information about what environment I’m talking about.
There are rare cases where you can use environment on its own without ‘the’. Like in the paragraph above this one, where I said “…about what environment”. Saying something like “what environment?” is grammatically correct.
However, more often than not, you’ll need the ‘the’ in front of it. If you’re ever confused on how it sounds, try reading the sentence out loud. When you read out loud, you’re much more likely to catch errors since you can hear how the sentence flows.
Also, you can type it into a Google Document or other grammar checker (i.e.: Grammarly). Any website that has a grammar checker will let you know if the sentence with ‘environment’ in it needs a ‘the’ attached to it.
How To Use ‘The Environment’ In A Sentence
To use ‘the environment’ in a sentence, you first have to know what an environment is. To put it simply, the word ‘environment’ refers to surroundings, whether they be yours or someone/something else’s. Here are some examples of ‘the environment’ in a sentence:
“I decided to do more research on the environment around my house.”
“Last night, Stephen went outside and found a lot of nature in the environment.”
“Willow is fascinated by the environment and chooses to go out to study it every day.”
