Difference between make 'an' effort and make 'the' effort [closed]

Consider the following sentence.

Yet I still enjoy making ____ (an/the) effort to bake at home from time to time.

Here, what is the difference between an and the? Is effort here a specific or common noun?

Solution 1:

I doubt OP's cited speaker "literally" enjoys making a/the effort to do home baking. More likely she enjoys the process of baking (disregarding the "effort"), and/or the subsequent eating or offering to others of the fruits of her labours.

This kind of "loose" phrasing is quite normal in English, and most Anglophones would say my observation is pedantic / over-exacting. I only make the point because to speakers of some other languages, the phrasing may seem odd.

Having said all that, I think a slightly different example sentence better shows how different articles can affect meaning...

1: I make the effort to clean my teeth twice a day - I do it, but it's an effort
2: I make an effort to clean my teeth twice a day - I try to do it, perhaps successfully

Many if not most native speakers would agree it's unambiguous that that the speaker in #1 does in fact clean his teeth twice daily - but that's not true for #2 (where although the speaker tries to achieve his goal, it's implied that he's not always successful). Bear in mind this is quite a fine difference, that won't always be either intended by a speaker, or understood by his audience.

I could perhaps justify this difference on the grounds that #1 refers to a specific amount of effort (the amount needed to achieve the goal), whereas #2 simply implies some effort (but possibly not enough to succeed).