Learn English – the difference between “one” and “a”

articles

Should I say:

One feature of my work is …

Or

A feature of my work is…

What is the difference?

Best Answer

They are very close semantically. Phonetically, they are a little different. We cannot put phonetic stress on the article a. But we can put phonetic stress on the word one. When we say "one feature of my work," there is therefore an emphasis on the one.

Most commonly, and is as exemplified by your sentence, this emphasis "emphasizes the indefiniteness of the article," i.e. it emphasizes that this is just one of many. Perhaps you don't want the reader to think that this is the only feature of your work. The "one" emphasizes that there could be more.

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