A bank or the bank

Question

Would you answer my question?A: Yesterday Mr. Smith walked along a bank of the river, where he happened to see a nasty dog running towards him.B: Yesterday Mr. Smith walked along the bank of the river, where he happened to see a nasty dog running towards him.Are A and B both correct?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymousWould you answer my question?

This is unnecessary. The purpose of a forum is to answer your questions.

anonymousAre A and B both correct?

Yes, but the real contrast is more like this:

A: Yesterday Mr. Smith walked along the bank of a river, where he happened to see a nasty dog running towards him.

B: Yesterday Mr. Smith walked along the bank of the river, where he happened to see a nasty dog running towards him.

Use A if you don't want to reveal which river it is, or if it doesn't matter which river it is.
Use B if you and your reader know which river it is, or if your reader can easily figure out which river you are talking about.

If you really want to make it important to keep it in doubt which bank it is, you can say 'along one of the banks of a/the river', but it's only the rarest of stories that would require you to do something so puzzling as that.

CJ

A bank or the bank

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