Guest Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Please help!! Why 'a' and not 'the'?
0 Hello everyone, I'm in a grammar emergency. I was asked a question and am having trouble providing an adequate answer. 02 br
02 br
00 Here is the original sentence (about countries): 02 br
02 br
00 Now they are both members of the EU, a fact that has helped them integrate both economically and politically with the rest of Western Europe. 02 br
02 br
00 The question was - should it be A fact or THE fact? I replied that it should be A fact, the sentence above is correct. This confused the writer, who then asked me two follow up questions: 02 br
02 br
00 1. If we are using THAT as a relative pronoun, why dont we say 'THE fact'?? (Maybe part of the answer here is that we aren't using 'that' as a relative pronoun? I'm really not sure). 02 br
02 br
00 2. If we know the concrete indicating word, we usually say THE instead of A, so why is it A in this case? 02 br
02 br
00 And now I'm confused. Please help!! 02 br
00 Mark, trying to work this out 02 br
02 br
0-
02 br
00 Here is the original sentence (about countries): 02 br
02 br
00 Now they are both members of the EU, a fact that has helped them integrate both economically and politically with the rest of Western Europe. 02 br
02 br
00 The question was - should it be A fact or THE fact? I replied that it should be A fact, the sentence above is correct. This confused the writer, who then asked me two follow up questions: 02 br
02 br
00 1. If we are using THAT as a relative pronoun, why dont we say 'THE fact'?? (Maybe part of the answer here is that we aren't using 'that' as a relative pronoun? I'm really not sure). 02 br
02 br
00 2. If we know the concrete indicating word, we usually say THE instead of A, so why is it A in this case? 02 br
02 br
00 And now I'm confused. Please help!! 02 br
00 Mark, trying to work this out 02 br
02 br
0-
Top answer
0 "that" is indeed a relative pronoun, but, on the other hand, there is no requirement for the antecedent to be preceded by the determiner "the". 02 br 02 br 00 Let's choose 01 b 00 a 02 b 00 restaurant that everybody can agree on. 02 br 02 br 00 So I don't follow the logic of the first objection to "a" in "a fact".
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
0
0 "that" is indeed a relative pronoun, but, on the other hand, there is no requirement for the antecedent to be preceded by the determiner "the". 02 br
02 br
00 Let's choose 01 b 00 a 02 b 00 restaurant that everybody can agree on. 02 br
02 br
00 So I don't follow the logic of the first objection to "a" in "a fact". 02 br
02 br
0
02 br
00 Let's choose 01 b 00 a 02 b 00 restaurant that everybody can agree on. 02 br
02 br
00 So I don't follow the logic of the first objection to "a" in "a fact". 02 br
02 br
0
00
0 THANK YOU for the quick response!! It's very helpful. Any other ideas would certianly be appreciated. 0-
0