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Reegis Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Always look at a/the best-before date before you buy milk products.

Hello,

should we use a or the in the sentence below?

Always look at a/the best-before date before you buy milk products.

And please substantiate your selection.
  

Top answer

Reegis S hould we use a or the in the sentence below? "the", of course! It's "the" date on the milk product.

— CalifJim

  • Reegis S hould we use a or the in the sentence below?
  • "the", of course!
  • It's "the" date on the milk product.
  • "Look at a best-before date" includes looking, for example, at the best-before date on a loaf of bread before buying a quart of milk!
  • Reegis And please substantiate your selection.
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4 Answers
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ReegisShould we use a or the in the sentence below?
"the", of course! It's "the" date on the milk product.

"Look at a best-before date" includes looking, for example, at the best-before date on a loaf of bread before buying a quart of milk!
ReegisAnd please substantiate
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CalifJim"Look at a best-before date" includes looking, for example, at the best-before date on a loaf of bread before buying a quart of milk!
I see. So even though the sentence is general and refers to all milk products, we say the because we mean the date of the given product (from the set of all milk products).
CalifJimOof! You
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ReegisSo even though the sentence is general and refers to all milk products, we say the because we mean the date of the given product (from the set of all milk products).
Exactly.
ReegisI am under the impression that I used the wrong word in my original post.
Not really wrong, but "substantiate" is a bit severe! (It sounds
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CalifJim"Please explain" is friendlier.
I am trying to enrich my vocabulary and this is why I sometimes happen with some new phrases. This time I tried to replace explain with some other word (something like justify), so I started to search through my dictionary and ended up with substantiate...
Recently I have realized a few times that
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