the/a wrong turn/number

[Ostap]

made the/a wrong turn

called the/a wrong number

Hello, everyone. According to the Ngram viewer, it seems that "wrong turn" we more use with "a", while "wrong number" with "the". But why? Why is there such a big difference? I thought that generally the adjective "wrong" usually takes "the", so why is it different with "wrong turn"?

 

[probus]

Somebody, @jutfrank I think, pointed out recently that Google Ngrams are based solely on books. Certainly in my variety of English we use both definite and indefinite articles with wrong turn and wrong number. We choose which to used on the basis of context.

 

[Ostap]

Somebody, @jutfrank I think, pointed out recently that Google Ngrams are based solely on books. Certainly in my variety of English we use both definite and indefinite articles with wrong turn and wrong number. We choose which to used on the basis of context.

Of course it's based on books, that's why I quoted it -- it's generally a garantee of good English, as opposed to the usual Google search results.
"Wrong" is adjective that you often use "the" with even when the noun phrase describes "one of many". That is, it acts differently from other adjectives, right?

 

[probus]

Nope.

I can't understand why you think the English in books is "better" than vernacular speech. They differ slightly but neither is better than the other. Learners, however, should avoid slang, profanity and colliquialisms because of the risk of error which might occasionally be offensive or embarrassing.

 

[Ostap]

Nope.

I can't understand why you think the English in books is "better" than vernacular speech. They differ slightly but neither is better than the other. Learners, however, should avoid slang, profanity and colliquialisms because of the risk of error which might occasionally be offensive or embarrassing.

It's a not vernacular vs formal. In books' dialogs there's a lot of vernacular English too. The difference is books, marked as US or UK, are usually written by native-speaker writers, and edited, while on Google you may find all sorts of ungrammatical trash.

 

[probus]

Yes. Anybody relying on Google to improve their English is making a mistake.

 

[emsr2d2]

@Rover_KE - I think your glitch has struck for a second time. Your post #3 contains an unedited quote of post #1 without any additional text.

 

[Rover_KE]

Thanks. I’m still on the case.

 

[probus]

Have you tried clearing the cache? I know it sems an unlikely remedy but it seems to work surprisingly often.