4 ms·

There's a clear difference between "bring me an apple" and "bring me the apple". The latter requires that there is either only one apple available, or requires

• ajuc 10y ago
  My language solves this with equivalent of: "Bring me apple" vs "Bring me that apple". I still don't understand the need for "a". Surely if you don't qualify a noun at all you mean "any". I guess "the" is like "distinct" in sql, so it may be useful to catch "too many rows" errors. It was a joke, BTW.
  • jeffmcmahan 10y ago
    >> I guess "the" is like "distinct" in sql That's original Russellian theory, in a nutshell (http://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/lang/Russell(1905).pdf http://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/lang/Russell(1905).pdf). None of its many variants cover the data. >> It was a joke Fair enough!