I wrote this thing;
"I woke up as any other usual day, but my spirit was high. After a
long period of non-stop, vigorous working, I finally could relax, as
it was a/the day of rest."
I strongly feel that "the" can be used in that sentence, as it is a reason, a very definite reason that is, for my being able to relax. Therefore, even though my readers will not have any information prior to reading this, I think "the" should be used.
Am I right? I always have difficulty knowing which article to use. If I am wrong, please tell me the difference between the nuances of those uses.
Edit:
I think that implied noun is "the day of rest that finally allowed me to relax", which I think is a referent unique enough to be used with a definite article.
Like this: I like to write stuff on the book when I annotate a book. It is sure that I am not referring to a specific book. But I used "the" instead of "a", because it refers to a book that I am annotating in a hypothetical situation. It is implied, which I think makes it definite.
Please correct my analogy if I am wrong.
Best Answer
Whether to use "a" or "the" depends on what you are trying to say.
If you habitually rest on a particular day, then you would use
and refers to a particular day one does not work and can be understood to be naming that day as a "day of rest"
refers to a day, in general, when one does not work
In your book analogy sentence sounds a bit awkward
You are actually using the shorthand of
and the meaning is
Using "on" implies you are writing on the outside of the book in your context. If you were writing regarding the contents of the book, you might use "about"