They arrived on a Saturday ...

[Dmitriy2323]

I've been learning articles in English for a more that a week and I've still got some questions. I chose three examples I found in the grammar books I use to study and I want to know why the authors decided to use the definite article in these sentences even though it seems a bit off. So in total I've got three questions for three different examples.

1. The first question is about the definite article in the sentence: “They arrived on a Saturday as far as I can remember. (We are only interested in the day of the week, not which particular Saturday)". I took the sentence directly from a grammar rule in a grammar book. And so my question is why the author of the sentence used the definite article before the word “week”. The first rule that comes to my mind is that we use a/an when talking about things in general and so I don't get why not say "the day of a week (any week)". It would be highly appreciated If besides the explanation of this particular scenario I could receive the general rule used in the sentence so I could apply it in my daily life in other sentences if needed.
2. The second question I’ve got is this: in the sentence “A screen displays the picture on a computer or TV.". My question is why is that the author used ‘the’ article before picture because it seems like we can say a picture because we aren’t talking about a particular picture. We are talking about any example of a picture because the sentence itself is about what screen does in general. The second part of the sentence makes more sense in terms of the use of articles because we say a computer not the computer because we aren’t talking about a particular one. We are implying that it can be any computer (a computer in general).
3. The third question is similar to the second one. The sentence is “A thermometer shows the temperature.”.And so again the question is why is that the author of the sentence used the definite article before temperature even though since the sentence itself is about general behavior of the device it seems more logical to use a temperature.

Again, it would be better if I was given a rule I could apply to any such sentence in the future because I’m not interested only in those sentences I wrote I’m interested in knowing how to apply the same logic to any other sentence.

 

[jutfrank]

my question is why the author of the sentence used the definite article before the word “week”.

We use the definite article to refer to something that both we and our listener already know about. In this case, it's the concept of 'week'—a unit of time measurement, made up of seven distinct days.

In every case of use of the definite article, we make specific reference to some 'thing' in the world.

My question is why is that the author used ‘the’ article before picture

Another good way to understand the use of the definite article is by what we tend to call 'the uniqueness rule'. When there is only one of something, both speaker and listener necessarily know which thing is being specified. In this case, there is only one picture, and it's being referred to specifically by the speaker.

However, this example sentence is no good, since it doesn't show the reference in clear contextual light, and as you correctly sense, with no added context the sentence could otherwise equally be 'a picture' and still make good sense. A better example is this:

On a TV, the screen displays the picture.

We use a TV to introduce the general concept of a TV, then we use the screen and the picture to refer specifically to its unique parts.

the question is why is that the author of the sentence used the definite article before temperature

Here, the temperature refers specifically to the temperature as it is on the particular day of measurement. To make a truly general statement about the function of thermometers in general, we would use zero articles, like this:

Thermometers measure temperature.

There are two zero articles there—before both nouns, but of course you can't hear them.

Again, it would be better if I was given a rule I could apply to any such sentence in the future because I’m not interested only in those sentences I wrote I’m interested in knowing how to apply the same logic to any other sentence.

The first and most important thing to do is to make sure you work with excellent examples in plenty of context, and then apply the basic rules in each case. I'm happy to help you with that. Still, as a native Ukrainian speaker, it's likely that even when you know the rules, you won't understand them sufficiently well, since the English system is just too different from the Ukrainian system. I've spent many years attempting to explain the semantics of articles to highy intelligent Russian/Ukrainian speakers and never really had great success. I think you're much better off learning this grammar naturally through exposure instead of trying to understand the highly abstract concepts of definiteness and degree of specificity, which is required to fully grasp this difficult area of semantics intellectually.

If you want to continue this thread, I suggest we deal with only one example at a time.

 

[Dmitriy2323]

Thanks for answering. Speaking of the temperature, does the same rule applies here? "If you use a USB flash drive to transfer the files (the specific files that are on that flash driver at the time of transfering) to a computer - make sure that there’s no malicious software on that computer first. " AND "If you want to buy seafood at a supermarket, pay attention to the expiration date (the specific expiration date of the seafood you want to buy at a particular moment) to avoid getting sick"

 

[Tarheel]

We almost always say "day of the week" as far as I know.

 

[emsr2d2]

Speaking of the temperature, does the same rule applies apply here?

That opening doesn't make sense because the next two examples have nothing to do with temperature. When we open with "Speaking of [noun]" or "Talking of [noun]", we go on to talk about something that's at least indirectly related to that specific noun.

1. "If you use a USB flash drive to transfer the files (the specific files that are on that flash driver drive at the time of transferring) to a computer, make sure that there’s no malicious software on that computer first. " AND

In that sentence, the definite article is required because, as you said, you're talking about those specific files. If you were giving general advice, you'd say "If you use a flash drive to transfer files to a computer ...".

2. "If you want to buy seafood at a supermarket, pay attention to the expiration date (the specific expiration date of the seafood you want to buy at a particular moment) to avoid getting sick."

The definite article is required there for the same reason. General advice would generally be said as "When shopping, pay attention to expiration dates to avoid getting sick". However, note that using the definite article before "expiration dates" would not be wrong. It would apply specifically to every single item you buy.

 

[jutfrank]

Speaking of the temperature, does the same rule applies here? "If you use a USB flash drive to transfer the files (the specific files that are on that flash driver at the time of transfering) to a computer - make sure that there’s no malicious software on that computer first.

It depends how general or simple you want the rule to be. In a basic way, the function of a definite article is always the same and very simple: to make specific reference to a thing. In that very basic sense, yes, it's the same rule.

However, it's different in that in your USB example, if I understand it correctly, the files are real and unimagined, unlike the temperature in the first example.

"If you want to buy seafood at a supermarket, pay attention to the expiration date (the specific expiration date of the seafood you want to buy at a particular moment) to avoid getting sick"

Yes, right. The specific reference in this example is to expiration dates generally: they're not real in the same way that I presume the files are because they're only in the mind at this point. This example is simlar to the temperature example in that respect.

 

[Kontol]

We use the definite article to refer to something that both we and our listener already know about

But, when I look "water" up in the dictionary, it says:

Water:

• (intransitive) (of the eyes) to fill with tears
• (intransitive) (of the mouth) to salivate, esp in anticipation of food (esp in the phrase make one's mouth water)

My question is why is the definite article "the" used in the words "eyes" and "mouth" for the first mention? It should take the indifinite article "a", right?

 

[Dmitriy2323]

That opening doesn't make sense because the next two examples have nothing to do with temperature. When we open with "Speaking of [noun]" or "Talking of [noun]", we go on to talk about something that's at least indirectly related to that specific noun.

In that sentence, the definite article is required because, as you said, you're talking about those specific files. If you were giving general advice, you'd say "If you use a flash drive to transfer files to a computer ...".

The definite article is required there for the same reason. General advice would generally be said as "When shopping, pay attention to expiration dates to avoid getting sick". However, note that using the definite article before "expiration dates" would not be wrong. It would apply specifically to every single item you buy.

It would make perfect sense for you, if you read the messages above yours. I said “speaking of the temperature “ to ask if the same rule applies to the sentences I provided

 

[jutfrank]

Water:

• (intransitive) (of the eyes) to fill with tears
• (intransitive) (of the mouth) to salivate, esp in anticipation of food (esp in the phrase make one's mouth water)

My question is why is the definite article "the" used in the words "eyes" and "mouth" for the first mention?

To make specific reference to parts of the body. Think of a typical human body and you can imagine the eyes, the neck, the chest, the limbs, the central nervous system, and so on.

It doesn't matter whether it's a first mention. What's important is that both speaker and listener are talking about the same thing. If it helps, imagine that they are standing in front of a diagram of the human body and pointing to the various body parts.

 

[emsr2d2]

It would make perfect sense for you, if you read the messages above yours. I said “speaking of the temperature" to ask if the same rule applies to the sentences I provided.

I read all the posts in the thread, specifically because after you wrote "Speaking of the temperature", there was nothing to do with temperature so I went searching for some previous mention of temperature. You have misunderstood my point. For "Speaking of the temperature" to work, the two examples that followed it needed to be about temperature. They weren't. They were simply about the use of articles.

 

[Alex Case]

Perhaps the simplest explanations that relate to these examples is that "the" is closest to "this/ that/ these/ those" to mean specific things, and that "the" is often followed by or means "the... that/ which...". In these examples:
- "a screen displays the picture" means "this picture/ that picture/ the picture that is sent to it"
- "a thermometer shows the temperature" means "that temperature/ the temperature which is true at that time/ in that place"

In contrast, "a/ an" means "(any) one of some different options. "A screen displays a picture" could mean "a random picture" and even more clearly "the thermometer shows a temperature" sounds like the thermometer is broken and is not showing the actual present temperature but instead whatever temperature it likes.

The week one is different, though it still follows the general meaning/ rules of "the". "The week" is a single system like "the (Roman) alphabet". If you say "Write the letters of an alphabet", that sounds like choosing any one of several different options, so alphabets from any country or culture being okay. Similarly, saying "the days of a week" would allow for the ten-day French Revolutionary version.