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I read an article about (a/the/-) Winterlude festival (festival here is not part of the event's name).

In 2015, she published (a/the/-) book Innocent thoughts of the Innocent mind.

Should I use articles in these sentences or not? Please do not offer to rephrase, I want to know more about these particular grammar structures.

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  • Is the title of the book "Innocent Thoughts of the Innocent Mind"? If so, it should be capitalized as I have done here. Otherwise, it looks like the title is "Innocent", then your sentence continues with "thoughts..."
    – gotube
    Commented Dec 15, 2022 at 19:00

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For the first one, usually you would use the here - you are thinking of a specific one, and you either expect the reader to know which one you mean, or intend by using the to convey to them that there is a specific one.

It is possible to use a, but it is unusual, and suggests something like "I didn't know this thing existed until that moment", with perhaps a bit of surprise that such a thing should exist at all.

For the book, both are possible. Using the suggests that you have some familiarity with it, whether or not your readers do; a suggests that you don't know it, or that you expect your readers not to have heard of it. There is not a clear separation between the two cases, though.

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  • Thank you very much, your explanation is of great help! Commented Dec 15, 2022 at 14:35

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