The boy walking down the street is my friend.

Question

I'd appreciate it if someone would answer my question. Thanks in advance.

A: The boy walking down the street is my friend.

I think there are 2 explanations for a definite article being added to "boy" in A. I'd like to know if my idea is right.
One is the speaker was told about a boy walking down the street, and tried to find him, and found, and said "The boy walking down the street is my friend".
Of course "The boy is my friend." would be enough. But if finding the boy took unexpectedly longer time, he would add the information already given (walking down the street).

The other is the speaker saw a boy walking down the street, and told about the boy to the listener, thinking the listener, too, could see the boy walking down the street.
Am I right? Sorry there is no context. Just analyze.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

AnonymousThe boy walking down the street is my friend.
... explanations for a definite article being added to "boy"

'boy' is a countable common noun in the singular. Therefore it must have a determiner. The basic choices are 'a' or 'the'. If we can show that 'a' is not appropriate, the only other choice we can use is 'the'.

If you say "A boy walking down the street is my friend", you are saying "One of several boys walking down the street is my friend". If you are playing a guessing game, that may be appropriate, but I don't think that is what you mean.

I think you mean that there is only one boy walking down the street, and that boy is your friend. If you mean that, you can't use 'a'. We already saw that in the previous paragraph.

Now you have a choice between 'the' and 'a', and you can't use 'a'. You have to use 'the'.

Anonymousthe speaker saw a boy walking down the street, and told about the boy to the listener, thinking the listener, too, could see the boy walking down the street.

There was only one boy walking down the street, so it had to be the boy that the speaker wanted to refer to. Therefore, the speaker used 'the'. This indicated to the listener that there was only one boy it could be, only one boy who fit both descriptions "boy" and "walking down the street".
________________

Regarding your other explanation: "The boy is my friend" is sufficient if the only person in view who is a boy is your friend, but more idiomatically you would probably say "That boy is my friend" instead.

CJ

The boy walking down the street is my friend.

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