 his friend
Consider this sentence:
1-He went out with his friend.
Logically I think, the sentence implies that: either he has only one friend, or the listener knows who the friend in question is. But I think people often use that sentence when they want to say:
2-He went out with a friend of his.
which implies both that he has more than one friend and that the listener doesn't know who that friend is.
Is the distinction I make between 1 and 2 grammatically correct?
If it is, do people really use 1 instead of 2? |