Is the use of "the" required in this sentence?

[Super Sonic]

"I don't really have THE time to do translation nowadays."

or

"I don't really have time to do translation nowadays."

Which one sounds better? Thanks for your reply in advance.

[Rover_KE]

I see no difference.

Rover

[jiamajia]

I see no difference.

Rover

The thread reminds me of the following two sentences:

1---Do you have time?
2---Do you have the time?

I roughly recall my teacher once said:

1--asking whether you are free.
2--asking what time it is.


I want to confirm that is the case for these two sentences. Thank you.

[Raymott]

"I don't really have THE time to do translation nowadays."

or

"I don't really have time to do translation nowadays."

Which one sounds better? Thanks for your reply in advance.

I personally would say:
I don't really get/have the time nowadays. But:
I don't really have time right now.

But you can say either (using 'have') in either circumstance.

[TeacherLada]

In this sentence, I understand why we use ''a'' as an indefinite article:

''There is a customer who wishes to speak Mrs Winston.''

But I didn't do a great job trying to explain 'why a and not the' to one of my learners (who insisted ''the'' should be used before the noun here)... How do I explain it clearly? She simply didn't see it the way the rest of the class did - that this customer is not some particular, specific customer.
I presented another example ''The customer to whom Mrs Winston spoke is here.'' to try and make it more clear, but that didn't help.

Moreover, she was sulking (a 40 year old student) until the end of the lesson because I said ''the'' should not be used here

Help please.
Thank you

[tedtmc]

You use the indefinite article since the customer is not identified in terms of his/her name and a stranger as far as Mrs Winston is concerned.

not a teacher

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=TeacherLada;634696]In this sentence, I understand why we use ''a'' as an indefinite article:

''There is a customer who wishes to speak Mrs Winston.''

But I didn't do a great job trying to explain 'why a and not the' to one of my learners (who insisted ''the'' should be used before the noun here)... How do I explain it clearly? She simply didn't see it the way the rest of the class did - that this customer is not some particular, specific customer.
I presented another example ''The customer to whom Mrs Winston spoke is here.'' to try and make it more clear, but that didn't help.

Moreover, she was sulking (a 40 year old student) until the end of the lesson because I said ''the'' should not be used here who

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Teacher Lada.

(1) Maybe you could make the sulker happy by telling her that

under the right situation, she would be right!!! That is, if you were

discussing a particular customer, you would use the.

Manager: I hear that there is a customer who wants to speak

with Mrs. Winston. Where is he?

Worker: There [pointing with his hand] is the customer who wants

to speak with Mrs. Winston.

(2) As we say in the United States, it is a win-win situation. You are

correct and your student is correct. It all depends on the situation.

THANK YOU

[TeacherLada]

Thank you both for answering in such a short time...
Yes, I DID tell her that we could, in fact, both be right, and actually mentioned the hand-ponting-possibility... But she is a bit difficult, I guess, and wanted me to say ''Yes, you're right and I'm wrong...''

But I feel much better now

THANK YOU