The most common word in English has many different functions. We all know it as an article, but at more advanced levels it functions in complex adverbial and prepositional phrases.
1 THE (AT)
The most common use of ‘the’ is as an article before a noun. When we look at the top 100 words that come before it in the iWeb corpus we get these statistics:
(nn1): 54|(jj): 18|(md): 5|(jjt): 3|(nnt1): 3|(jj_nn1): 3|(np1): 3
If we simplify that without the details:
The next word is almost always a noun and probably an adjective if not.
2 THE (RR42)
For the most part
3 THE (II42)
ON THE PART OF
IN THE LIGHT OF
4 THE (RR32)
ALL THE SAME
We skip: ‘NONE THE LESS’ because it should be one word ‘NONETHELESS’.
The following two are unlisted on the English Vocabulary Profile.
4 IN THE MAIN 3890
5 BY THE BY 1775 (adverbial phrase)
5 THE (RT42)
FOR THE TIME BEING
7 THE (RR22) 3501
1 NONE THE WISER 2408 WORSE 738 RICHER BETTER POORER
9 THE (JJ43) 2944
Up TO THE MINUTE
This adjective phrase is not listed in the EVP.
10 THE (RG42) 1614
This adverb phrase is not in the EVP. It is also very rare as it requires a numeral in both examples that can be found on iWeb. RARE!!!!
1 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) THE (AT) 1891
2 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) THEIR (APPGE) 932
3 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) NATURE (NN1) 230
4 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) A (AT1) 202
5 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) THINGS (NN2) 147
6 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) YOUR (APPGE) 133
7 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) PRECEDENCE (NN1) 120
8 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) IMPORTANCE (NN1) 119
9 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) PRIORITY (NN1) 115
10 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) AUSTRALIA (NP1) 103
11 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) GRACE (NN1) 80
12 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) MERIT (NN1) 80
13 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) PREFERENCE (NN1) 80
14 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) CREATION (NN1) 79
15 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) SERVICE (NN1) 72
16 IN (RG41) THE (RG42) ORDER (RG43) OF (RG44) 10 (MC) 71
17 IN (II) THE (AT) ORDER (NN1) OF (IO) ? (?) 66
18 IN (RG41) THE (RG42) ORDER (RG43) OF (RG44) 1 (MC1) 65