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A shop sells many types of toy cars.

enter image description here like the below picture.

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Suppose the first car, which is green, does not sell and the shop doesn't want to keep it.

Is it correct to say "We don't want to stock the green toy car" or "We don't want to stock green toy cars"?

Do you think we say "the green toy car" to mean this type of toy cars not one specific toy car?

Longman dictionary has one example

"that swimsuit is completely out of stock"

"that swimsuit" here does not refer to that specific swimsuit but that type of swimsuit right?

When we say "that swimsuit belongs to Mary", "that swimsuit" here refers to a specific real one.

What is the difference between "that swimsuit" in "that swimsuit is completely out of stock" and in "that swimsuit belongs to Mary"?

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    The difference is provided entirely by context; it will be obvious whether the speaker is discussing a particular swimsuit (e.g. they have just mentioned it, or are pointing to it) or whether the speaker is working in a shop and discussing a stock item (e.g. the customer saw it previously during a visit to the store; the manager says it will no longer be stocked). The context might be extra words, e.g. 'I love that red swimsuit I saw in Macy's last week', or 'I love that red swimsuit [that you are wearing]'.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 2 at 6:55
  • @MichaelHarvey, some people say "that swimsuit" in "that swimsuit is completely out of stock" is short for “that style of swimsuit” and in "that swimsuit belongs to Mary" refers to a real actual swimsuit.
    – Tom
    Commented Jul 2 at 7:00
  • It can be short for either, and I have just told you how to distinguish them.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 2 at 7:01
  • "We don't want to stock green toy cars" would mean that they reject any green car, not just that particular model.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 2 at 7:40

2 Answers 2

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Unless the context says otherwise, in general use like in the Mary example, that is used as described in Cambridge Dictionary:

We use that most commonly to point to a thing or person.

In a shop, that swimsuit in

that swimsuit is completely out of stock

is understood to refer to that design or that colour.

Similarly, the green toy car in

We don't want to stock the green toy car

is understood to mean that type or that design, and not that specific one pointed at.

We don't want to stock green toy cars

has a different meaning and refers to all different types of green cars.

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2

The

When we use the definite article it does not mean that the thing spoken about is unique, ie that only one exists in the entire world. It only has to be unique within the context - your audience has to know which one you are referring to.

So, if you're looking at this range of toy cars and you say "the green car", your audience should realise that you mean the green car from this range, because there are lots of green cars in the world but by saying the green car you must mean a specific one. It's an unwritten rule that, when you refer to something specific, the audience should either know what/who you are talking about or it should be immediately apparent.

If you said "we don't want to stock green cars" that would mean you don't want to stock any green cars as a rule, and that you would not carry them from any range, which actually doesn't sound so unusual - for most of my life cars were rarely produced in green due to superstition!

The difference between "we don't stock..." and "we don't want to stock..." is that the latter expresses your desire. It sounds less idiomatic in the context because it sounds like a personal preference of the shopkeeper rather than a business decision.

That

'That' as a determiner is used to refer to something specific that has already been identified. I know you've talked about swimsuits, but let's stick with the green car for continuity. Someone comes into your shop and asks for the green car, you could say that you didn't stock "the green one", or you could say "that one". When you use 'that', you don't have to mention the colour again because the person just mentioned it - it has already been identified.

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