student asking question

Why he says "there's 'this' trick" instead of "there's the trick"? Is that an emphasis?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes you are right, "this" is used to emphasize a specific trick that he is going to discuss. However in this case, he doesn't ever mention the specific trick, although "this" implies that he will mention it. So the word "this" here is used purposefully to make us wonder what the trick is. In general, whenever you want to refer specifically to an idea, person, place, or thing, and remember it as though it is in the present tense, you can replace "the", "a" or "an" with "this". "The" is more general while "this" is much more specific. Ex: I had this great idea yesterday is that we should take a road trip. Ex: The other day this deer almost ran into my car on the road.

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