A/the station

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

Should it be 'a' or 'the' in my sentence? 'I went to the/a police station'.

 

[tedmc]

Which police station?

 

[Rachel Adams]

Which police station?

The only one in my neighborhood.

 

[tedmc]

Use "the" if it is the only one. Use "a" if there are more than one or you do not want to be specific.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Use "the" if it is the only one. Use "a" if there are more than one or you do not want to be specific.

It doesn't matter if it is mentioned for the first time. If there is only one station you still have to use the definite article. Right?

 

[Raymott]

Yes, if there's only one, you use "the".

 

[emsr2d2]

In all honesty, even if there were two or three police stations in my town, I'd still say "I had to go to the police station earlier to report my car stolen". It really doesn't matter which one you went to.

For me, it works the same as "going to the doctor", "going to the dentist" etc. It doesn't matter how many doctors or dentists there are in the area, we'd still use the definite article.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

In all honesty, even if there were two or three police stations in my town, I'd still say "I had to go to the police station earlier to report my car stolen". It really doesn't matter which one you went to.

For me, it works the same as "going to the doctor", "going to the dentist" etc. It doesn't matter how many doctors or dentists there are in the area, we'd still use the definite article.

Sometimes, it nags us non-native speakers when we hear or see that there are exceptions to using the definite article. :-?

 

[tedmc]

In all honesty, even if there were two or three police stations in my town, I'd still say "I had to go to the police station earlier to report my car stolen". It really doesn't matter which one you went to.

For me, it works the same as "going to the doctor", "going to the dentist" etc. It doesn't matter how many doctors or dentists there are in the area, we'd still use the definite article.

That's fine, but how would you tell learners the general rules of using the articles? I believe they have to be told the general rules before they learn the exceptions.

In the case of "the doctor" or "the dentist", I think it is a reference to the particular trade/vocation/profession and not the individual.

 

[emsr2d2]

That's fine, but how would you tell learners the general rules of using the articles? I believe they have to be told the general rules before they learn the exceptions.

In the case of "the doctor" or "the dentist", I think it is a reference to the particular trade/vocation/profession and not the individual.

We also say "going to the doctor's/dentist's [surgery]". That fixes the issue of it being a trade not a place.

In general, I don't teach "general rules" of using articles. It's very complicated (as the sheer number of threads on the topic attests to). I always get my students to note the use of articles in everything they read/hear and learn from that. If they come to me with a particular sentence in which they are struggling with the article usage, I'll explain it to them.