Why do you say " listen to the radio" or " play the guitar" instead of "listen to a radio" or"play a guitar"?

Question

25kdiamond · Answer

@T0sH Because both of them have various availabilities. There are many different types of radio stations playing various different types of programming all at the same time. The same goes for guitars, there isn't one type of guitar there are several different types so it's easier to refer to them in a more open context for suggestion rather than being singular.

Gezzza · Answer

Because a radio or a guitar would not give any information about whose guitar or which guitar you’re playing. You would only use this if you didn’t want to provide context as to whose or which guitar you were playing. Eg “I played a guitar last summer” (this means, it was maybe my first time playing a guitar, the only that’s relevant to my story is I had a guitar and I played it. Doesn’t matter whose guitar, or where I played it)

When you say “the guitar” or “the radio”, it implies it’s your guitar, your radio, and you’re listening to a specific station and playing a specific guitar (usually yours). This is especially important for the radio, because if you said “I listened to a radio”, then my immediate question would be “ok… whose? Where? Why? Was it your first time listening to a radio? Why are you not defining which radio?” By using “the”, you’re defining that you listened to your radio, and to a specific station on the radio

Gezzza · Answer

Basically even if you’re not defining which radio or which guitar in the sentence, the radio and the guitar are still defined, in a more broad sense. If you used “a”, then you would specifically want to leave them undefined. That would be a choice

Hunky-dory · Answer

You can "play guitar" too.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=play+guitar%2Cplayed+guitar%2Cplay+the+guitar%2Cplayed+the+guitar&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=28&smoothing=3

Gezzza · Answer

@Hunky-dory True! That is a habit though :)

I play guitar = I am a guitar player

Usually means you’ve had some training and did not just randomly play a guitar one time

recarioca · Answer

I'm sorry, but I disagree with both answers.

It's just the way we say it. There are no explanations and no logic - you simply need to understand the difference between "play the guitar" and "play a guitar".

I "play the guitar" simply means that I know how to do it. "the guitar" here is a general term, and it doesn't matter which guitar you are talking about. Another similar expression is "she was in the hospital." We don't know and probably don't care which hospital she was in, all that really matters is that she was hospitalized.

We say "to listen to the radio" when we want to say "to listen to a radio broadcast". There is no explanation or logic. One of the answers says, "There are many different types of radio stations playing various different types of programming all at the same time." -- I'm sorry but that's completely wrong. "to listen to the radio" has been in use since the early days of radio broadcasts, when there was only one station in town :-) And even today, if you are in a remote area where your radio can only pick up one station, you do say "I listened to the radio" - the number of stations available has nothing to do with why we say "listen to the radio".

Another answer wrote, "When you say 'the guitar' or 'the radio', it implies it’s your guitar" -- this is wrong too. You can say "I didn't feel like talking to the cab driver so I just listened to the radio instead" -- here, it's obvious that the radio you're listening to is the one in the cab. You can be a poor but very gifted child who has learned to play the piano and yet your family never had one. You can also say, "It rained non-stop the whole time she was in Istanbul, so for a whole week she stayed in the youth hostel and played the guitar." We have no idea whose guitar it was; maybe it was hers, or maybe it was a guitar that belonged to the youth hostel. It doesn't matter which guitar we are talking about.

It's just the way the expressions are formed. My advice to you is: simply memorize them and don't try to understand why. There is no why :-)

That said, there are other expressions that also speak in general terms, like "to listen to the radio" and "to play the guitar," that use A instead of THE. The interesting thing is, they mean the same thing: "She can play the piano but she can't ride a bicycle." We're not talking about any specific piano or bicycle. We're just talking about her ability to do one thing, and inability to do the other. "I've never learned to ride a bicycle!" and "I've never learned to play the piano!" carry exactly the same meaning even though the articles are different.

In short, just remember: 
to be in THE hospital (This is North American English; in England they say "to be in hospital")
to play THE guitar
to listen to THE radio
to read THE newspaper

to ride A bicycle
to drive A car

Hunky-dory · Answer

@recarioca And "to play guitar,"" to play piano,"" to play violin," etc.

https://www.antimoon.com/forum/t6047.htm

Gezzza · Answer

@recarioca I was simplifying mate. I explained the difference in usage based on the general difference between “the” and “a” (which does exist btw, despite your protestations). You are explaining “playing the guitar” in the way that that can also mean “playing guitar”. That’s a special usage that I didn’t want to get into. But sure, you’re otherwise correct and I’m sure the original poster is thoroughly confused now

recarioca · Answer

@Gezzza I totally agree there is a difference between "I play the guitar" and "I play a guitar" -- I never said there wasn't. When the noun is the same, as in these two sentences, a change in article will always imply a change in meaning. Always.

What I did say is that there isn't a difference in meaning between "I can't play the guitar" and "I can't ride a bicycle" -- here, we have different articles in general statements. Both sentences mean the same thing even though in one sentence you have A and in the other you have THE. When do you know when to use THE and when to use A in general statements? You don't; you just memorize the different articles for the different nouns.There's no logic, much less a rule, to that.

As for "I play guitar," I wasn't the one who brought it up. Like you, I steered clear of that footnote.

Gezzza · Answer

But your usage and examples of “I play the guitar” had overlapping meaning to “I play guitar”. That’s a special usage unrelated to the standard difference between the and a

recarioca · Answer

@Gezzza You wrote, 'But your usage and examples of “I play the guitar” had overlapping meaning to “I play guitar”.

Like where? Which example? Even if there is an overlap, what that means is that "I play guitar" can sometimes carry the same meaning of "I play the guitar" -- but not necessarily the other way around.

And since I never brought up "I play guitar" in the first place, such an overlap, if such there be, would be a mere coincidence that is completely beside the point. A footnote, like I said before.

Why do you say " listen to the radio" or " play the guitar" instead of "listen to a radio" or"play a guitar"? See a translation

Basically even if you’re not defining which radio or which guitar in the sentence, the radio and the guitar are still defined, in a more broad sense. If you used “a”, then you would specifically want to leave them undefined. That would be a choice

You can "play guitar" too.https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=p...

@Hunky-dory True! That is a habit though :) I play guitar = I am a guitar playerUsually means you’ve had some training and did not just randomly play a guitar one time

@recarioca And "to play guitar,"" to play piano,"" to play violin," etc.https://www.antimoon.com/forum/t6047.htm

But your usage and examples of “I play the guitar” had overlapping meaning to “I play guitar”. That’s a special usage unrelated to the standard difference between the and a

Why do you say " listen to the radio" or " play the guitar" instead of "listen to a radio" or"play a guitar"?

You can "play guitar" too.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=p...

@Hunky-dory True! That is a habit though :)

I play guitar = I am a guitar player

Usually means you’ve had some training and did not just randomly play a guitar one time

@recarioca And "to play guitar,"" to play piano,"" to play violin," etc.

https://www.antimoon.com/forum/t6047.htm