We does often use like this sentence.
For example: : Jill is talking to a man.
And we can swap object and subject .
Then the sentence made like this.
For example : The man jill is talking to.Here is my question.
Why does it use the man instead a man?
Answer
Let’s look at five possibilities:
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Jill is talking to a man.
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Jill is talking to a man from Berlin.
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Jill is talking to the man from Berlin.
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A man Jill is talking to is from Berlin
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The man Jill is talking to is from Berlin.
In (1), the noun ‘man’ is not defined. We know almost nothing about him except that, being a man, he is neither a boy nor female.
In (2), we know something about this man – he is from Berlin – but that’s all we know. There may be several other men from Berlin around. We don’t know which one this particular man is.
In (3), the man is defined; he is the one from Berlin. There may be a number of other men we know about, but only one comes from Berlin; he is the one Jill is talking to.
(4) is marginally acceptable as a sentence. It suggests Jill is talking to several men, one of whom, not specifically identified, is from Berlin. We would be far more likely to express this as “One of the men Jill is talking to is from Berlin.
In (5), Jill is talking to only one man; this man is identified as that particular man to whom she is talking. There may or may not be other men around, and one or more may or may not come from Berlin, but that is not relevant.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Carter , Answer Author : tunny
