What are some tips to correctly use "the" and "a"?

Answer by Michael Chan:
"a" refers to anything of that type, nothing specific.

"the" refers to a specific something of that type, nothing else. It is usually used when referring to something that both parties already know of.

I am a vice-president in the company.

In this case, I am probably one of the two or more vice-presidents in that specific company that we have been talking about previously.

I am the vice-president of the bank.

In this case, there is no other vice-presidents, there is only one, which makes me a lot more "big-shot" in that particular bank we have been talking about, than any banks which have tons of vice-presidents all over the place.
What are some tips to correctly use "the" and "a"?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When AFP contains errors

Agence France Presse is a major recognised news aggregator. But as with anything produced by humanity, bias or errors creep in. False GPS signal surge makes life hard for pilots This link from Channel News Asia was last viewed by author on 12 March 2024, Are my students able to find out what the error is? Hint: Chinese students or military fans may have a better chance of knowing this. Leave your answer in the comments!
Read more

Homonyms, Homophones and Homographs

Introduction I write this article in response to a lesson that I taught my pupils on homonyms. I happened to mention that there are other  homo -s and mentioned a homophone. They got all confused, and so I started an impromptu lesson on something I picked up during Linguistics lessons in teacher's college. Homonyms Homonyms are words that sound alike but have different meanings. Words like  fair  (to be equal) and  fair  (a fun event you go to) are homonyms. They sound the same but their spelling may or may not be different, and their meanings are definitely different. Other homonyms include  bear  (the animal) and  bear  (to put up with something). Homophones Homophones are a subset of homonyms. Since they're a subset, they're also homonyms as well. Homophones sound alike but have different spelling and meanings. So both meanings of  fair  quoted for homonyms cannot fall under homophones. Words like  pair (double) and  pare  (peel) are homophones. Other homophones include ...
Read more

The Different "Wards" of Directions

This article first appeared in Domain of Experts , a website where selected academic experts write. Introduction One of my students recently asked me if there is a difference between "backward" and "backwards". "Is it another of those American English versus British English thing?" he wondered aloud. I smiled. My students have become very used to my explaining how my American friends use different terms or spell certain words differently, compared to we Singaporeans (who use British English). In fact, it is not just "backward" and "backwards" that many students got in a bind over, but all the various "wards" in English. Forward vs Forwards Forward can be used as an adverb or an adjective, and is used to describe a direction of motion, to the front, or describe a position. Forwards, on the other hand, can only be used as an adverb, and is used interchangeably with "forward" The squad commander took a forward position ...
Read more