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Milky   Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:30 am GMT
As a teacher, how would one explain the use of the definite article here?

He still wets the bed.

She reads the newspaper every day.

We always miss the bus.
Josh Lalonde   Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:58 pm GMT
Definite article is one of those tricky things that you have to get a "feel" for. With these examples, I would explain it like this: The definite article is used when a general class of objects is represented by a singular example. "She reads the newspaper every day," obviously doesn't mean that she reads the same one every day, but "the newspaper" represents a whole class of other newspapers. Same thing with "the bus". "The bed" is a little trickier, because (hopefully) he's only wetting his own bed. Hope that helps a bit.