a second date vs. the second date

[milan2003_07]

Good evening everyone,

Below I've provided the extract from one of the tasks from the English File Student's Book by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden, and Jerry Lambert. The text describes dates of one of the girls who is looking for a partner. Instead of choosing a potential partner herself via Tinder or some other app, she decides to ask her mother to do it for her and then she goes on a date with the person chosen by her mother. It turns out that she trusts her mother more than herself and decides to take part in such an experience. In the end it seems to be successful.

"... He is from Germany, but he lives in Dublin. He's a real gentleman. At the end of the evening he asks for a second date. Mum is very pleased. I agree to the date, but I don't really think it's going to work".

Why do the authors use "a second date" instead of "the second date"?

My kindest regards,

 

[emsr2d2]

He asks her for "another" date (singular). The fact that it will be date number two is irrelevant really.

 

[milan2003_07]

He asks her for "another" date (singular). The fact that it will be date number two is irrelevant really.

Yes, he asks her for another date. In the book they call it "a second date". If we still use numerals like first, second,... is "a second date" a mistake or is it possible in the meaning of "another date"?

 

[Skrej]

The number of dates is irrelevant, but it's not a mistake to include the article. In fact, it would be incorrect to omit it.

He could ask her for a third, a fourth, or even a tenth date. We typically wouldn't keep track beyond the second or third date, though and would just switch to 'another date'. The first few are numbered because there's significance in them - they illustrate that they enjoy each other's company enough to repeat the process. After that, we'd typically just speak of 'still dating' versus continuing to count.

The numbers here are just adjectives. Remove the number, and like any other adjective you'd still need an article.

a first date
a romantic date
a terrible date
a date

As to the 'a vs. the' question - since the subsequent date hasn't happened yet, we considerate it indefinite. If you wanted to talk about it after the fact, then you'd need the definite article.

They kissed on the third date.