Reply to Articles are completely useless in the English language, grammar police where are you to weigh in?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a big difference between "the" and "a."  Look at these two sentences:

1)  The boy is running down the street.
2)  A boy is running down the street.

In #1 you know it is a specific boy, one who within the context of the paragraph has been identified.  In #2 you only know that some random boy is running down the street.[/quote]
Not much difference, though, and who is ever saying that other than English teachers? To teach how to use a useless article. When did you hear that sentence in actual use? I know this boy or a random boy is running? You are never going to use it that way, ever. Useless.[/quote]

Have you seen my little brother?

1)  The boy is running down the street.
2)  A boy is running down the street.[/quote]
I might be dense, but I see no reason to keep the article in both your cases in real conversation. "OMG, a boy is running down the street, and a car is coming!" If you know the boy, is a specific boy, why would you even say the boy? Andrew is running down the street. or Boy (any boy that I don't know) is running down (the) street, surely you are not just yelling around to a random person that is not near the road?[/quote]

FYI that there are two of us responding to you.  We would both be "a poster" as opposed to "the poster" meaning there is only one of us.

If you don't get it, you don't get it.  I'm not going to get into an argument about it although you clearly want one.  So if either of us responds to you again, it will be up to you to determine if it is only [u]the[/u] other poster or if it is [u]a[/u] poster who might be different.

Tootaloo![/quote]

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