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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
How to use 'the'
The story goes:
When a car which a female driver was driving stopped at a train crossing, it was pushed by the car behind, and her car was caught in the train and was dragged along, but she was calm enough to call 911 and she was saved.
After that comes the sentence:
However, using your mobile phone at the wrong place can result in death.
My question is about this 'the'.
Why not 'a wrong place' nor 'wrong places' but 'the wrong place'?
Typically, 'the' is used when the listener can think of the same thing in the mind as the speaker, but in this case what place do native listeners think of?
Thank you for your kind attention.
When a car which a female driver was driving stopped at a train crossing, it was pushed by the car behind, and her car was caught in the train and was dragged along, but she was calm enough to call 911 and she was saved.
After that comes the sentence:
However, using your mobile phone at the wrong place can result in death.
My question is about this 'the'.
Why not 'a wrong place' nor 'wrong places' but 'the wrong place'?
Typically, 'the' is used when the listener can think of the same thing in the mind as the speaker, but in this case what place do native listeners think of?
Thank you for your kind attention.
Top answer
Why not 'a wrong place' nor 'wrong places' but 'the wrong place'? Because the common perception is of 'the right place/way/etc' vs 'the wrong place/way/etc': two basic choices generally, though a specific instance may offer more. It is a sort of fixed collocation.
- Why not 'a wrong place' nor 'wrong places' but 'the wrong place'?
- Because the common perception is of 'the right place/way/etc' vs 'the wrong place/way/etc': two basic choices generally, though a specific instance may offer more.
- It is a sort of fixed collocation.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousMy question is about this 'the'.Why not 'a wrong place' nor 'wrong places' but 'the wrong place'?Because the common perception is of 'the right place/way/etc' vs 'the wrong place/way/etc': two basic choices generally, though a specific instance may offer more. It is a sort of fixed collocation.
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