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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > How
How
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maryse pey�
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Hi,
in the 3 sentences the things are identifiable :
In the 1st one the novel is one novel from all Marion �s novels. You borrowed her one of her novels, one among all the ones she had.
In the 2nd one he had seen 1 particular film. The film he saw reminded him of this particular film he had seen once. Both films had common points. But it was not the 1st nor the last film he had seen, he saw, he will see : it is 1 film among the films he had seen before this reminding film.
In the 3rd sentence the speaker has probably seen a lot of things, eccentric things but never as eccentric as this particular one. So it was one of the most eccentric things among all those he had seen before this jacket.
May these explanations help a little ? |
26 Aug 2016
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yanogator
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Good answer, Maryse. In short, these are examples of one thing out of many, not the only one, so we use "a". In your first example, though, "the" would work. It depends on whether you �re just identifying what you did, or which book you were reading. What did you do until breakfast time? I read a novel that I had borrowed. Is that my book you were reading? No, it �s the novel I borrowed. ("a" works here, too) Bruce |
26 Aug 2016
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Ann_85
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Many thnaks to you all for your answers! Well, but what if I need to insert the articles (a/the) by myself? How should I know that the underlined parts of the sentences are not restrictive (particularizing) but identifying? I mean how to distinguish indentification from restriction (particularization) if there is no context, just separate sentences? + some practice
Ex. It was, after all, no disgrace to be connected with .... case reported in the Times. (reastriction or particularization)? A or the? It was not ... job that he liked. (a or the?) With one hand on ... young man�s shoulder, he went up the stairs. (a/the?) Thank you!
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26 Aug 2016
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yanogator
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In your new examples, the first one could be either, depending on whether your comment is about the Times in general or a specific article. I respect the Times immensely, so it was no disgrace to be connected with a case reported in it. focus not on the case It was no disgrace to be connected with the (You could use "that") case reported in the Times. focus on the case Teaching was not a job that he liked. focus on Teaching, not on job He only liked one job in his entire career. The third one on his resume was not the job that he liked. focus on job He always needed assistance, so he could only go upstairs with one hand on a young man �s shoulder. focus not on the particular young man (This one is not very likely. More probably, there was a particular young man and this is a specific incident, so it would be "the") focus on the specific young man So, I hope you can see that it is a matter of where the focus of the sentence is. Bruce |
26 Aug 2016
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Ann_85
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Thnak you Bruce for your detailed explanation. It helped me a lot! |
26 Aug 2016
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