Welfare Estate

For a/an describing something, e.g. It was a very dangerous thing to do,• 161. b We sometimes see a special use of the at the beginning of a story. This is the first sentence of a short story by Ruth Rendell. A murderer had lived in the house, the estate agent told Norman. This puts the reader in the middle of the action, as if we already know what house. 2 The context is important in the choice of a/an or the. Take this example from Hovercraft Stowaway in (1). The captain was…