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Updated on
21 Apr 2022
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Question about English (US)
What is the difference between He graduated from THE top French university. and He graduated from A top French university. ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between He graduated from THE top French university. and He graduated from A top French university. ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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- English (US)
- Simplified Chinese (China) Near fluent
"The" is a definite article and "a" is an indefinite article.
In this case, "THE top French university" implies there is only one top university, or if there are other decent ones, they're barely significant.
"A top French university" implies there is more than one top French university, and this particular university is one of them.
Examples? Okay. If I say "an apple", I'm not saying specifically what or which apple, I'm just saying, "this apple exists, and now I'm pointing that out". If I say "the apple", it means I've already introduced this particular apple somehow earlier as the subject of a sentence and I'm being specific about it. Hope this helps!
Highly-rated answerer
- Turkish
- English (US) Near fluent
“The” indicates one certain thing. For instance X is the best university and it is certain that he graduated from there.
Meanwhile “a” indicates there are more then one possibility. “He could have graduated from X,Y, or Z universities but you can’t say for certain. You only know it is a highly ranked University.
- English (US)
„The” top French university = the university ranked as #1 in all of France. Nothing less than #1 position.
„A” top French university doesn’t have to be in the #1 position. It can be ranked somewhere between #2-10, for example. Or perhaps even in the top 20 universities in France. It’s more relative — less precise.
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