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Explain the difference: a. I don't know how to talk to children. b. I don't know how to talk to the children.
Sentence a tells that the person cannot talk to children in general, sentence b tells that the speaker doesn’t know how to talk to some specific children
Explain the difference: a. I'd like a coffee please. b. I don't drink coffee.
Sentence b refers to coffee as uncountable noun, sentence a implies that the speaker wants a cup of coffee.
Explain the difference: a. Money can't buy happiness. b. I put the money on the table.
Sentence a talks about money in general, sentence b talks about some specific sum of money everyone knows about.
Explain the difference: a. What are we having for dinner? b. The dinner was delicious.
Sentence a uses word dinner in the meaning of meal, sentence b uses the dinner to talk about specific food we ate for dinner.
Explain the difference: a. Mary went to school 5 km away from her home. b. John went to the school to pick up his grandson.
In sentence a Mary went to school to study, so she used it for the purpose it was built for. In sentence b John went to the school building, he didn’t go there
Explain the difference: a. Let me introduce John. b. This is the John I told you about.
In sentence b we say the John to emphasize that this is this specific person, not any other John.
Explain the difference: a. Love and understanding are essential in a family. b. He is the love of my life.
In sentence a love is referred to as abstract noun, in sentence b the love is the person the speaker talks about, no other person could be their love but only t
Explain the difference: a. There's a hair in my soup. b. He styled his hair in a man-bun.
Though we usually say that hair is uncountable, like in sentence b, when we refer to a piece of hair that we can see, we can say a hair, like in sentence a.
Explain the difference: a. Queen Elizabeth was the longest-ruling monarch in Britain. b. Long live the Queen.
In sentence a we use a title with a proper name, in sentence b we have the title only.
Explain the difference: a. I think BMW is a fantastic car. b. I've bought a BMW.
In sentence a we talk about a brand, in sentence b we say a BMW and mean that it’s a car made by BMW.
Explain the difference: a. Sorry, I have no time for this. b. Have you got the time? – It’s 11 o’clock.
In sentence a time is referred to as uncountable noun, in sentence b we what to know what time it is, which may be used using this question.
These dancers are great but I don't really like __ music
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At school, students learn how to use __ computers.
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It's freezing, but the children are enjoying __ snow.
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I'm not interested in __ science fiction films.
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My sister is at __ home. She's playing __ guitar.
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