Arabic definite article

Al- (Arabic: ٱلْـ, also romanized as el-, il-, and l- as pronounced in some varieties of Arabic), is the definite article in the Arabic language: a particle (ḥarf) whose function is to render the noun on which it is prefixed definite. For example, the word كتابkitāb "book" can be made definite by prefixing it with al-, resulting in الكتابal-kitāb "the book". Consequently, al- is typically translated as "the" in English.