Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[christopher000]

I don't understand the differences between definite article and indefinite ariticle. I mean how native English speakers distinguish them. Is there any skillful ways ? Thanks for your help!

[Christine123]

Imagine we have five books on a table. I instruct you to give me a book. This means I am instructing you to give me any of the five books.

Now, imagine the same table with five books. I instruct you to give me the book. This means two important things: I am asking for a specific book, AND I assume you know what specific book I want.

You use the indefinite "a/an" when it introduces a noun for the first time in a conversation. The speaker assumes the person with whom they are speaking has no specific knowledge of the noun in question. Example: "I read a book today." I assume you have no knowledge that I read a book today.

You use the definite article when you assume the person with whom you are speaking has some knowledge of the noun in questions. Example: "The book I read today was very entertaining." I can now use "the" to describe "book" because I can assume you have knowledge of this book since I mentioned it to you in an above example.

[christopher000]

It's very kind of you! I'll try to think about the differences in daily study.Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Chris.