Use a/the hula hoop

Question

There are three people in Kevin's family, and they are doing different things now. Kevin's father is doing tai chi on the balcony. Kevin's mother is using __ hula hoop near his father. What about Kevin? What is he doing? He is sleeping in bed. He is very tired.

Which article should I use to fill in the above blank, the or a?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Say 'a'. It's the first time 'hula hoop' has been mentioned.

Clive

Sitifan · Answer

1. Look! Who's the boy riding ____ bike over there?

2. Look! Who's the girl in ____ red skirt over there?

Which article should I use to fill in the above blanks, the or a?

Ivanhr · Answer

1. a

2. the

CalifJim · Answer

0. Kevin's mother is using __ hula hoop near his father.

1. Look! Who's the boy riding __ bike over there?

2. Look! Who's the girl in ____ red skirt over there?
________

For sentence 2, it seems to me that there is only one right answer: the. The girl isn't wearing just any old skirt; she's wearing that exact red skirt that she's wearing! In the context, the skirt is unique. The speaker is trying to point the girl out in terms of the specific skirt she is wearing. It makes a great deal of difference which skirt the girl is wearing because that is the means by which the listener is able to identify her. This situation calls for the.

_______________

For sentences 0 and 1, I don't think that there is a right answer. The choice between a and the depends on what is in the speaker's mind.

In sentence 0, the speaker may know that there is only one hula hoop that Kevin's mother could possibly be using. It's the same hula hoop she always uses. There is no other hula hoop available to her. So if he says the hula hoop, we the listeners assume these sorts of facts as well. We take the use of the as a signal of the uniqueness of the hula hoop. There is no reason for us to question the speaker's apparent knowledge of the situation.

If, however, the speaker has in mind simply that Kevin's mother is doing some hula-hoop activities, and this activity is his focus, then it doesn't make any difference whatsoever which hula hoop she is using, so he may decide to say a hula hoop.

Also, note Clive's remarks. If the speaker is "scene setting", a is appropriate even if the hula hoop is unique.

________________

Similar considerations apply to sentence 1. If, as in sentence 2, the speaker is thinking of the bike as unique (in the sense that it is, of course, the only bike that the boy is riding), then he may decide to say riding the bike. (Also, if the speaker has in mind a specific bike, possibly mentioned earlier in the conversation, he will choose to say riding the bike, i.e., riding the bike we were just talking about. In my opinion, this scenario is less likely.)

On the other hand, if the speaker is focused only on the fact of the boy's doing bike-riding, then it makes no difference which bike the boy is riding, and he may decide to say riding a bike.

CJ

Ivanhr · Answer

CalifJim0

On the other hand, if the speaker is focused only on the fact of the boy's doing bike-riding, then it makes no difference which bike the boy is riding, and he may decide to say riding a bike.

CJ

That was my reasoning for using the 'a'. But I agree with all that you said in your post.

The sad thing is, however, that if this question was a part of an ESL test I'm pretty sure that only 'a' would be considered correct.

Sitifan · Answer

CalifJim2. Look! Who's the girl in ____ red skirt over there?

________

For sentence 2, it seems to me that there is only one right answer: the. The girl isn't wearing just any old skirt; she's wearing that exact red skirt that she's wearing! In the context, the skirt is unique. The speaker is trying to point the girl out in terms of the specific skirt she is wearing. It makes a great deal of difference which skirt the girl is wearing because that is the means by which the listener is able to identify her. This situation calls for the.

CJ

If for sentence 2, there is only one right answer: the.

What's the acceptability of the sentence below, which is quoted from an English textbook published in Taiwan.

Who's the man in a blue jacket over there?

CalifJim · Answer

You planned this "gotcha" right from the beginning, didn't you?

sitifanWhat's the acceptability of the sentence below, which is quoted from an English textbook published in Taiwan.

Who's the man in a blue jacket over there?

This pattern is certainly understandable, but it doesn't strike me as completely idiomatic. If I were writing a textbook, I would not include this sentence.

CJ

Use a/the hula hoop

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