student asking question

Why is he using an article "the" before a proper noun?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The definite article "the" is used here before the proper noun of "Enola" because even though this proper noun is singular, "Enola" is not referring to the name of "Enola Holmes" but instead to her literary character as a whole. This is a rare case of using a definite article in front of a singular proper noun, and it is not common to do this. In this case, you can also drop "the" and use the indefinite article "a" instead.

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