English has one the. German has three — one for each gender:

Gender	the	Examples
masculine	der	der Mann (man), der Tisch (table), der Kaffee (coffee)
feminine	die	die Frau (woman), die Lampe (lamp), die Stadt (city)
neuter	das	das Kind (child), das Buch (book), das Sofa (sofa)

• Every noun starts with a capital letter: der Tisch, die Lampe, das Buch.
• Gender belongs to the word, not the thing — a table isn't male. So learn every noun with its article: der Tisch, never just Tisch.