Learn English – a date or the date

articlesgrammaticality

I was thinking of a sentence;

July 16, 1999, is the date at which my dog died.

It shows the specific date at which my dog died.

But when I use "a" instead of "the", I think I am focusing more on the type of the date.

July 16, 1999, is a date at which my dog died.

As is the case with the day:

That was a day my dog died (type, or kind of the day)

That was the day my dog died (identifying the day; the specific day)

Am I correct about the articles involving the date?

Best Answer

Unless your dog is capable of dying more than once, it does not make sense to say

July 16, 1999 is a date on which my dog died.

A better example of using a for a date would be

July 16, 1999 is an important date for me because my dog died on that day.

You could have many dates that are important to you, but there can only be one day on which your dog died, so it must be

July 16, 1999 is the date on which my dog died.

A couple of comments: date on which is much more widely used than *date at which. It would be much more idiomatic to use the day that, for example:

July 16, 1999 is the day that my dog died.

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