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Generally speaking, "the" needs to be interpretted from the speaker's point of view. Saying "I went to a store" implies that I had a wide choice of stores. Sa

Generally speaking, "the" needs to be interpretted from the speaker's point of view. Saying "I went to a store" implies that I had a wide choice of stores. Saying "I went to the store" implies that I didn't choose which store I went to. It's the store that I usually go to when I buy things. It doesn't necessarily mean that the listener knows which store I went to, or that there is only one store. Conversely, if I say, "I ate the peach" then I am inferring that there was something special about the peach which would imply that you should know about it. Why is it different from a store? Because I don't routinely eat the same peach every day/week. I don't have a default choice. Yes, I taught English as a foreign language for 5 years. It's interesting that native English speakers who speak perfectly don't actually know how this works. Even after the amount of thought and study I put into it, I'm willing to bet that I don't have it 100% right. If anybody is studying a second language, this is a big hint about what you should not be studying ;-) You can get some things almost completely wrong and it will be fine most of the time. Eventually, after you are corrected 10,000 times you will use it without thinking about it.

SilasX 11y ago
>Generally speaking, "the" needs to be interpretted from the speaker's point of view. Saying "I went to a store" implies that I had a wide choice of stores. Saying "I went to the store" implies that I didn't choose which store I went to. It's the store that I usually go to when I buy things. It doesn't necessarily mean that the listener knows which store I went to, or that there is only one store. I think we agree but are labeling it different. I meant the "listener knowledge" broadly -- you seem to agree that using "the" requires some understanding on the listener's part that there's something that narrows down which store and makes it definite, even if it's not enough for them to pick it out. In this case, that the listener somehow knows that there is some store you must be thinking of. But the "store" usage still seems to break this: people use it even there's no reason for the list to believe the speaker is thusly restricted!

SilasX 11y ago

>Generally speaking, "the" needs to be interpretted from the speaker's point of view. Saying "I went to a store" implies that I had a wide choice of stores. Saying "I went to the store" implies that I didn't choose which store I went to. It's the store that I usually go to when I buy things. It doesn't necessarily mean that the listener knows which store I went to, or that there is only one store. I think we agree but are labeling it different. I meant the "listener knowledge" broadly -- you seem to agree that using "the" requires some understanding on the listener's part that there's something that narrows down which store and makes it definite, even if it's not enough for them to pick it out. In this case, that the listener somehow knows that there is some store you must be thinking of. But the "store" usage still seems to break this: people use it even there's no reason for the list to believe the speaker is thusly restricted!