SCRIPT
Boss: "Okay, Scavo, you're up. Let's here this genius idea of yours."
Tom: "Okay. Uh, okay. The single greatest obstacle facing Spotless Scrub is a lack of visibility. We need to concentrate ad spending in places where women spend THE majority of their time
the = definite article
a/an = indefinite article
The is used to refer to a specific or particular member of a group. For example, "I just saw the most popular movie of the year." There are many movies, but only one particular movie is the most popular. Therefore, we use the.
"A/an" is used to refer to a non-specific or non-particular member of the group. For example, "I would like to go see a movie." Here, we're not talking about a specific movie. We're talking about any movie. There are many movies, and I want to see any movie. I don't have a specific one in mind.
THE:
"The dog that bit me ran away." Here, we're talking about a specific dog, the dog that bit me.
"I was happy to see the policeman who saved my cat!" Here, we're talking about a particular policeman. Even if we don't know the policeman's name, it's still a particular policeman because it is the one who saved the cat.
"I saw the elephant at the zoo." Here, we're talking about a specific noun. Probably there is only one elephant at the zoo.
A/AN:
"My daughter really wants a dog for Christmas." This refers to any dog. We don't know which dog because we haven't found the dog yet.
"Somebody call a policeman!" This refers to any policeman. We don't need a specific policeman; we need any policeman who is available.
"When I was at the zoo, I saw an elephant!" Here, we're talking about a single, non-specific thing, in this case an elephant. There are probably several elephants at the zoo, but there's only one we're talking about here.