Welcome to 15mins.today the home of English Shadowing. I'm your host Gavin and this is InTense Episode 40. Well guys we are continuing on this journey with the definite article “the.” So, today is going to be slightly different, I'm going to be talking about something where we do require “the.” Okay, and what we're gonna be talking about is “Department,” the word “Department.”

Now if you remember when we spoke about subjects, we don't put “the” in front of a subject like Accountancy or Accounting, but when we talk about the Department we work for, which is something very specific, or the Department that you are working with, then we usually put “the” in front of it as in the following example, “I joined the Accounting Department.” or “The IT Department will take care of it.” If we talk about a Department in general like, ”HR will take care of it.” We can say it like that or we could say, “The HR Department will take care of it.” So as soon as we add the word Department, I would suggest that you put the word “the” in front of the name of the Department. So be careful because it's something we use regularly, let's look at some examples.

Does Jane work in the Accounting Department? Yes, she works in the Accounting Department.

Does Jane work in the Accounting Department? No, she does not work in the Accounting Department.

Do you work for the HR Department? Yes, I work for the HR Department.

Do you work for the HR Department? No, I do not work for the HR Department.

Do you work for HR? Yes, I work for HR.

Do you work for HR? No, I do not work for HR.

Does Peter work in the IT Department? Yes, he works in the IT Department.

Does Peter work in the IT Department? No, he does not work in the IT Department.

Does Peter work in IT? Yes, he works in IT.

Does Peter work in IT? No, he does not work in IT.

Did John and Jane join the Sales Department in December? Yes, they joined the Sales Department in December.

Did John and Jane join the Sales Department in December? No, they did not join the Sales Department in December.

Is the Marketing Department crucial to success? Yes, the Marketing Department is crucial to success.

Is the Marketing Department crucial to success? No, the Marketing Department is not crucial to success.

In what Department do you work? I work in the Services Department.

Is David the head of the Marketing Department? Yes, he is the head of the Marketing Department.

Is David the head of the Marketing Department? No, he is not the head of the Marketing Department.

Well there you go guys, keep practicing the questions and the answers and remember I'll catch you in the next one, take care, bye!