Noun with the definite article as a subject of a sentence

[nik4]

Hello everybody. Please, help me to clarify this question.

Assuming that there are many books I owe to a person and some of them are here on my table, is it correct to say:

"The books I owe you are on my table"?

Will it show that those books just belong to ones I owe to the person, and somewhere else are other books I owe him?
Or will it strictly mean that these are the only books I owe?

The confusion is because "the" is often used for an exhaustive list.


And if to say: "The book I owe you is on my table" - the same question - can it just show that this is one of those books and there are other books I owe somewhere?

Thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

"The books I borrowed from you are on the table" or "The books I need to return to you are on the table" are fine. Note that the verb "owe" sounds unnatural in this context.

There is no way to tell how many books are on the table in total. All we know from your statement is that, somewhere on the table, the person can find the books that you want to give back to him.

 

[nik4]

Thanks for the answer. I still don't understand one thing..
If I say "The books I owe you are on my table" - does it mean that they all are on my table, and there can't be any of them somewhere else, for instance in another cupboard?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I would take, 'The books I owe you are on my table' to mean that all of the books I borrowed from you are on the table. If you mean only some of them, then say so.

Similarly, 'The book ...' means I only borrowed one, and there it is.

 

[Tdol]

Assuming that there are many books I owe to a person and some of them are here on my table, is it correct to say:

"The books I owe you are on my table"?

No- you could say The books on my table are ones that I owe you, but your sentence suggests that the books on the table are all the ones owed.

 

[nik4]

Guys, thank you a lot for helping. From what you told me, another question appeared. If to say something like this:

"These are the pens I borrowed from you. This is also the pen I borrowed from you".

Some people told me that it is correct, like "the" doesn't mean only, it just shows what something is. I would like to listen to your opinions.

Can I use "the" several times here, talking about more and more pens I borrowed?

Thanks.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you say your two sentences, then all we know is that there is one set of pens ("the pens I borrowed from you") and then one more borrowed pen. I don't know why you would say those two sentences in succession though. You would refer to all those pens in one sentence "These are [all] the pens I borrowed from you."

 

[nik4]

I got it, thanks)))
The point of my question is: if I borrowed many pens from a person, and then give him a part of them, would it be correct to say:
"These are the pens I borrowed from you" ? - I use "the" here, even though these are not all the pens I borrowed.

This is what I can't comprehend.

 

[emsr2d2]

No. If you're not giving all of them back, you need to say "Here are some of the pens I borrowed from you".

 

[nik4]

Pretty interesting, all the time I thought the opposite was true. Thanks a lot

 

[Rover_KE]

Pretty interesting. All the time I thought the opposite was true. Thanks a lot. [STRIKE][/STRIKE]

Please don't use a home-made emoticon in place of a standard punctuation mark. If you want to use a smiley, click on the icon.

 

[nik4]

Guys, please help. I got confused again...
There is a title of an article:
"The emotion that causes distraction"

How would English speakers interpret it?
Is it the only one emotion that causes distraction at all, or here it is about one specific emotion among many that cause distraction?

Thanks.

 

[Rover_KE]

Please start a new thread for this unrelated question, under the title The emotion that causes distraction.