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Can you please explain the grammar behind the use of the article "a" in the following sentence, as you would explain it to an English language learner?

Teresa, from the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, tries to keep a shivering, injured Winter warm and calm.

(p.s. Winter is the injured dolphin's name)

Thank you so much!

Andrea
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1 Answers1

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The difference between "a" and "the" here is subtle. A rule of English is that after an initial mention of an entity, as described, in a conversation, subsequent references must be definite (using "the" rather than "a"). If you refer back using "the shivering, injured Winter", you convey that your listener should understand this to be an appropriate reference, which means he knows that Winter was shivering and injured. So if you do not wish to convey this, you should use "a shivering, injured Winter" with the indefinite "a", to show that you do not assume that your listener knows that Winter was shivering and injured.

Greg Lee
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  • How about leaving out the article? Teresa, from the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, tries to keep shivering, injured Winter warm and calm. – JK2 Jun 06 '19 at 05:13
  • @JK2, it sounds ok without any article. I don't know what it means. – Greg Lee Jun 06 '19 at 19:41
  • JK2 - I can't do that, as this is from a reading textbook. – Andrea Jun 16 '19 at 09:16
  • Greg Lee - Thank you for your answer. What you wrote is easy for someone like me to understand, but not an ELL. I explained it similar to how you did, but in a much more basic way. He had never seen this construction before and it seemed so strange to him. Thanks again! – Andrea Jun 16 '19 at 09:23