getting the/a garden view room |  | 
Apr 5th, 2014, 01:54 am
| eslHQ Member | | Join Date: Feb 28th, 2014
Posts: 12
| | getting the/a garden view room when checking into a hotel, is it possible to say " I'd like to have a room with THE sea view?"
thanks a lot  | 
Apr 6th, 2014, 12:07 pm
| Sue | | Join Date: Oct 8th, 2006 Location: Milan
Posts: 1,406
| | Re: getting the/a garden view room No. "The" indicates shared information - ie information known to both speaker and listener. So, eg if you knew that the hotel only had one room with a sea view (an obviously the staff would know that too) you might say :
I'd like to have the room with the sea view
In other words, you're saying "I know that you know which room I'm talking about".
But when there are lots of rooms with a sea view, so you're not referring to a specific one, and therefore there is no shared info, you'd say :
I'd like a room with a sea view. | 
Apr 6th, 2014, 10:52 pm
| eslHQ Member | | Join Date: Feb 28th, 2014
Posts: 12
| | Re: getting the/a garden view room Thank you- I'm sure your information is correct, but my line of thought went like this:
there are several possible views in the hotel- a garden view, a sea view, etc. so isn't it possible to specify the type of view one 'd like to have? ex. "I'd like a room with the sea view" ?
Thanks in advance | 
Apr 7th, 2014, 12:20 pm
| Sue | | Join Date: Oct 8th, 2006 Location: Milan
Posts: 1,406
| | Re: getting the/a garden view room No - because there isn't "just one" sea view unless there's just one room overlooking the sea. By starting the sentence "I'd like a room..." you are presuming there are a number of rooms like that - and each one will have a slightly different view depending on it's position. So there is not one sea view from the hotel, but lots of different ones depending on whether you are on the first or tenth floor, the left of the building or the right. So what you are saying is "I'd like a room (it doesn't matter which one) with a sea view( it doesn't matter which one). Only if there was only one room overlooking the sea (and therefore only one view) could you say "I'd like the room with the sea view." | 
Apr 7th, 2014, 09:16 pm
| eslHQ Member | | Join Date: Feb 28th, 2014
Posts: 12
| | Re: getting the/a garden view room Thanks susan., your answers are so inspiring.  |
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