After more than ten years of learning English, I still have a few problems with articles.
Which of the following two sentences is correct and why?
A cow is an animal.
or
The cow is an animal.
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Alexander
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Some examples using each would be helpful to give a good explanation. Otherwise, the answer is simply "Both". – user3169 Mar 16 '17 at 20:43
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may this will be useful http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/34815/the-confusion-between-the-or-a-article – Shannak Mar 16 '17 at 22:57
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1Possible duplicate of Uses of the definite article (the) in generic noun phrases – Em. Mar 17 '17 at 02:03
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Both can be considered correct, depending on the situation. "A" and "an" are considered indefinite articles. Therefore, when you say "a cow" or "an apple", you wouldn't have a definite/particular cow or apple in mind. "The" is a definite article. Therefore, when you say "the cow", you would have a definite/particular cow in mind.
In some sense, though, my answer is over-generalized. The sentence "the cow is an animal" could also refer more generally to the taxonomical genus to which cows belong. However, even this would still be a definite use of "the" because you have a particular genus in mind.
Caleb Koch
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6Therefore, when you say "the cow", you would have a definite/particular cow in mind - sorry, but that is not correct. The definite article is often used when referring a whole class of things of the same type, for example "The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the big cats in the genus Panthera..." – stangdon Mar 16 '17 at 18:16
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@stangdon, I'd think so, too, but then conversely it should be the animal? – Hector von Mar 16 '17 at 19:57
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"there is a cow in the room", still means a (edit: or the) particular cow. – Hector von Mar 16 '17 at 19:57
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2@Hectorvon - No, "the cow is an animal" is fine, because the cow (example of a class of things) is an animal (a singular but nonspecific animal). – stangdon Mar 16 '17 at 20:00
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@stangdon I'd be more apt to say that my answer is incomplete, rather than incorrect, but either way, thank you for the feedback. I've made a correction that I believe reflects your intention. – Caleb Koch Mar 17 '17 at 18:44