Phrase inquiry

Question

I saw this sentence by 'Mohammed Ali' and thought that the use of 'the' sounded wrong. Am I missing something? Here it is:

"The man who who has no imagination has no wings"

I think it should be "A man ..". What do you think?

Thanks.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

"The/A man who has...no wings." is correct.  There is essentially no difference in meaning with either word.

Anonymous · Answer

Anonymous"The/A man who has...no wings." is correct. There is essentially no difference in meaning with either word.

Thanks a lot. But doesn't 'the man ..' imply that it is a specific man or only one man, and 'a man' implies any man?

Or do both imply any man in this case?

Anonymous · Answer

In this particular situation, there is no difference in meaning. In, "The man who has...no wings.", you are singling out a particular man, but it could be any man out of all men, so the idea is similar to "A man who has...no wings."

You see this kind of use of "the" when the speaker wants to make the statement sound more authoritative or weighty, for example:

"The/A man who does not put something aside for a rainy day will come to regret it."

Anonymous · Answer

AnonymousIn this particular situation, there is no difference in meaning. In, "The man who has...no wings.", you are singling out a particular man, but it could be any man out of all men, so the idea is similar to "A man who has...no wings."You see this kind of use of "the" when the speaker wants to make the statement sound more authoritative or weighty, for example:"The/A man who does not put something aside for a rainy day will come to regret it."

Awesome. Thanks a lot for your explanation. That was what I wanted to know. So it works like that, similar to 'a', in this case and other similar statements in which the author wants to make it sound authoritative or weighty, as you said. Have I understood correctly?

Anonymous · Answer

Yes. In fact, in this type of weighty and authoritative-type of statement, "the" can always be substituted for "a" to make the statement more forceful. For example:

"A/The fool and his money are soon parted."

"An/The honest man is always in the right."

"The/A time-waster will never get those wasted minutes back."

Anonymous · Answer

AnonymousYes. In fact, in this type of weighty and authoritative-type of statement, "the" can always be substituted for "a" to make the statement more forceful. For example:"A/The fool and his money are soon parted.""An/The honest man is always in the right.""The/A time-waster will never get those wasted minutes back."

Great. I can't thank you enough for your valuable help and great explanation/examples!

Phrase inquiry

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions