There's an episode [0] [1] in a famous Canadian comedy that makes fun of this distinction: > Brent: Ah, the tax man. > Drey: A tax man. > Brent: Pardon? > D

There's an episode [0] [1] in a famous Canadian comedy that makes fun of this distinction: > Brent: Ah, the tax man. > Drey: A tax man. > Brent: Pardon? > Drey: I'm not the tax man, I'm a tax man. Saying the tax man is just a little dehumanizing, thank you very much. […] > Brent: A tax man. And whatever you, don't call him "the tax man." Call him "a tax man" or he kinda goes squirrelly on ya. > Wanda: Some people are sensitive about article use. > Brent: About what? > Wanda: Proper article use. "A" or "an" are indefinite articles. "The" is a definite article. In fact, some people say "the" is "the" definite article. […] > Hank: I know what I'm doing. We get the tax man... > Brent: A tax man. > Wanda: Actually, in this case you can say "the" tax man, because you're referring to a particular person. [0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0546137/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0546137/ [1]: https://cornergas.fandom.com/wiki/Tax_Man https://cornergas.fandom.com/wiki/Tax_Man