In Arabic, the word "the" is ال (al).
When ال (al) comes before a word, the ل (L) may be silent. Whether it is silent depends on whether the first letter of the word is a Sun letter or a Moon letter.
🌒 القمر (The moon) is pronounced "al-qamar." ق is a Moon letter, so the ل (L) is pronounced normally.
☀️ On the other hand, الشمس (the sun) is pronounced "ash-shams," not "al-shams." ش is a Sun letter, so the ل (L) blends with the Sun letter sound.
In this exercise, we will go through each letter to learn whether it is a Sun letter or a Moon letter. No need to memorize the words - they're just for practice.