almost

"the young people" sets "young people" apart as a segment of the population - differentiating them from "the old folks," I guess.

Hi Taka,

Here's an additional comment.

'Today, almost all the young people have a cell phone' Sounds like the speaker is not a young person.

'Today, almost all young people have a cell phone' The speaker m

I'd agree that the "the" adds a little distance, in that example. But if "all the X" is qualified by an adverbial phrase, it seems to become more difficult to make a distinction:

1. Indeed, one issue that almost all the young farmers in the Valley mentioned was the difficulty of finding farm workers. Almost all said this stemmed from the employment insurance and welfare systems, w

I was going to say that it sounded like the speaker was not one of the "young people," but then I though of usage like "But Mom, all the kids are doing it!" in which the speaker would clearly be "one of the kids."

Hi,

Au contraire, the speaker is clearly not one of the group of kids who are doing it. He or she just wants to be.

Dads know about these things, too. In fact, very often there are no kids who are doing it, but all the kids are saying this to their moms.

Clive

Ah! Good point, when your child wants to do something that you've said no to in advance.

But when your child is doing something she knows is a no-no, and you say "How could you even think of doing that?!" you get "But Mom, all the other kids were doing it too!" (Implication: And you don't see their mothers looking like they want to trade their children in for some good used kitchenware fr

I really enjoy you discussion, people.

MrP,

MrPedanticI'd agree that the "the" adds a little distance, in that example. But if "all the X" is qualified by an adverbial phrase, it seems to become more difficult to make a distinction:

1. Indeed, one issue that almost all the young farmers in the Valley mentioned was the difficulty of finding farm w

Some other idea crossed my mind.

It is not possible to count the number of young people who live in our world.

Of course, you could say the young people in this community/ in our university / in our company, etc.

Therefore it would be ideal to say Today almost all young people have a mobile phone/ a computer.
[You and I can't count the number of young people

TakaI really enjoy you discussion, people.

MrP,

MrPedanticI'd agree that the "the" adds a little distance, in that example. But if "all the X" is qualified by an adverbial phrase, it seems to become more difficult to make a distinction:

1. Indeed, one issue that almost all the young farmers in the Valley mentioned was the