The use of definite articles (the in English, le/la/l’ in French) has often been explained by ‘uniqueness theory’, that the definite requires the existence of only one entity meeting the description. However, there are observable instances which seem to escape the requirement, as follows: ‘Je me suis tordu la cheville et je suis allé à l’ hôspital,’ ‘I sprained my ankle and I went to the hospital’ in which cases the interlocutor cannot identify the referent. This book maintains, the choice of definite articles depends not on the objective phenomena of the real world, but on in which situation the conversation is going on.