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The use of 'The'

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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms

Rewrite sentence: The tables and the chairs have to be moved from his room. | 'day by day' vs 'everyday'

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#31 (permalink) Wed Jun 18, 2008 21:05 pm The use of 'The'

Molly, you came up with all of those "the [adjective] [name of person]" examples in the first place. Are you able to see a consistent theme?

Barb_D
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Joined: 13 Jun 2008
Posts: 474

#32 (permalink) Wed Jun 18, 2008 22:33 pm The use of 'The'

Barb_D wrote:

Molly, you came up with all of those "the [adjective] [name of person]" examples in the first place. Are you able to see a consistent theme?

I had my own idea a few posts back:

Quote:

I think "the" helps express a certain, sometimes temporary or topical, characteristic or state, of the person being talked about.

e.g.

First we had the confident Mr Jamie, now we have the beleaguered one.

But, now I'm not sure.

These are possibilities.

1. The mysterious Mr Jones came last night. (He always mysterious. The speaker and listener know it, or at least the speaker thinks the listener knows/know of the referent.)

"A + adjective + Mr X" can be either of these contexts:

2. A mysterious Mr Jones came last night. (He was mysterious when arrived/throughout the visit. The speaker knows/knows of him, but the listener does not).

3. A mysterious Mr Jones came last night. (He was mysterious when arrived/throughout the visit. The speaker and listener know him. Maybe his being mysterious was unusual/out of character.).

Think also about:

The changed Mr Jones came last night.
A changed Mr Jones came last night.

I think the indefinite article example there would only work for example #2 above.

Molly
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Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017

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#33 (permalink) Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:10 am The use of 'The'

I think I'm in agreement with your observations.

Barb_D
I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 13 Jun 2008
Posts: 474

#34 (permalink) Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:08 am The use of 'The'

Barb_D wrote:

I think I'm in agreement with your observations.

OK

Cool

Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017

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Rewrite sentence: The tables and the chairs have to be moved from his room. | 'day by day' vs 'everyday'

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