I have a question regarding the usage of articles. What is the difference between "a" and "the"?
Why do I need to use "a" in "that was a winter I"ll never forget."? Can I use "the" instead?
Also, why do I need to use "the" in "that was the winter we went to Norway"?
Thank you very much!!^^
The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns.
the = definite article
a = indefinite article
For example, if I say, "Let's read the book," I mean a specific book. If I say, "Let's read a book," I mean any book rather than a specific book.
Another example, "I went to a forest. *The forest was big.". In this first forest was indefinite one, and after I said the first sentence it became definite one and used the instead.
And in your example, winter is indefinite on "that was a winter I"ll never forget." and become definite and used the in "that was the winter we went to Norway".
The second of two coreferential noun phrases must be definite. The first (indefinite) noun phrase may be inexplicit in a conversational context, so that the use of "the" conveys to a hearer the assumption that there is such a unique thing in the context which could have been mentioned, even if that was not done explicitly.
For instance, if I am talking to you on the phone and I say "I've got one here on the bed," now you know there is a bed in my vicinity, and only one nearby bed that the thing could be on. It would be tiresome if we had to make all such background assumptions explicit.
