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The cat that bit me ran away. The wounds were treated by _ doctor. Which article to put before doctor?

My understandings:

I haven't talked about any doctor in the preceding sentence. But I've talked about a situation that generally demands a doctor's help.

Utshaw
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    It depends on the situation. Is the doctor likely to be known to your audience, perhaps associated with a school, village, or workplace? Is there only one doctor there, a few working together in a practice, or some other arrangement? Was it your regular doctor, or did you travel a distance to access medical care in a clinic or hospital? Are you going to say more about the doctor, or is their identity irrelevant? ("My doctor" might also be valid.) – Stuart F Jan 30 '24 at 16:49
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    Does this answer your question? A doctor VS. the doctor ? Can't get much more specific than that! – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '24 at 18:53
  • ...in case it's not obvious from the linked question, it doesn't really matter whether you use *a* or *the* in the cited context, regardless of whether the person you're speaking to knows anything about which doctor you're talking about. It doesn't even matter whether he knows or cares if the doctor who treated you was the only possibility for miles around, or could have been any one of dozens of doctors. – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '24 at 18:58
  • This is always the same thing: the general idea: treated by a doctor. A specific idea: by the doctor [in the town etc. etc] – Lambie Jan 30 '24 at 19:22
  • And to confuse the issue a bit, in USA one "goes to the hospital," but in UK, I believe "go to hospital," is acceptable. See https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=to+hospital%2C+to+the+hospital&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 – DrMoishe Pippik Jan 30 '24 at 21:15

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