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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

"the" in "This is the book I bought yesterday."

0I'd be happy if someone would answer my question. Thanks in advance.02br
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00Concerning the sentence: This is the book I bought yesterday. 02br
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00I'd like to know the reason "the" is used in the above sentence.02br
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00I think the reason is "book" is already mentioned, and the speaker and the listener both know what it is. But isn't there any other reason?02br
00Is it possible to use "the book" even though "book" isn't yet mentioned, when the speaker wants to show that "book" is the only book he bought? 0-
  

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12 Answers
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0This is my take: 02br
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00Sometimes, this depends on the context, though the object is not mentioned before, here it is book, we can use "the" if we are talking about a specific kind of book.0-
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0 Hi,02br
00It's tricky, I think. Here are two examples. In the first you use "the" because the other knows about the book, somehow:02br
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01b00I told you I were going to buy a book, remember? Here it is... This is the book I bought.02b02i02br
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00In the second, the other doesn't know about it, and I think
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0You're all close in your responses. I'll give you a more simplified answer though.02br
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00You say "the" book if you only bought 01b00one02b00 book yesterday. If you bought three books, but you're only showing me one of them, you'd say: "This is a book I bought yesterday."02br
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00Or you could walk into that bookstore and say
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01cite10ytsirk12cite10It's now "the" book of choice. You buy 11b10the12b10 book, and you're so proud of your purchase that you have to show all your friends. You say, "hey everyone: look at 11b10the12b10 book I bought!"12blockquote
10Yep, I wouldn't use "a" there, but you could a
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01cite10Kooyeen12cite10Yep, I wouldn't use "a" there, but you could also say "hey guys, this is 11b11i10a12i12b10 book I just bought..." (also: "...this is 11i11b10the12b12i10 book I just bought...") - But I'm afraid it's the "this is" construction that allows me to us
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1sup00"The"02sup00 is a much needed article in this sentence and many others like it. Which book? 01sup00The 02sup00book I bought yesterday.02br
00I finally got 01sup00the job02sup00 at Cisco which I applied for 2 months ago. 0-
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0The word "book" will always have an article in front of it, 01u00when used as a noun. 02u02br
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00The article clarifies the book, whether it is "the" book, "a" book, or "that" book. 02br
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00It is a countable noun. 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10Concerning the sentence: This is the book I bought yesterday. 12br
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10I'd like to know the reason "the" is used in the above sentence.12br
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10 Ultimately, the reason the speaker used 01i00the02i00 is because he 01u00
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0Thank you, all. I see well.0-
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0-----Hi, Kooyeen02br
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00Concerning your sample: "hey everyone: look at the book I bought!"02br
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00I think the speaker is trying to say not that there is only one book I bought, but that there is only one book I'm now trying to differentiate from other books. Am I right?0-
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