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Ivanhr Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Generic use of the definite article

Is the following sentence possible when generalizing about the Geman people?

The German is a good musician. (I'd only ever accept it to speak about an individual who happens to be German and my answer was that it would be wrong to use this to generalize)

I'm asking this because the question has come up on a number of occasions lately and there hasn't been a definite answer that would support my claims.
  

Top answer

Ivanhr Is the following sentence possible when generalizing about the Geman people? The German is a good musician. No.

— CalifJim

  • Ivanhr Is the following sentence possible when generalizing about the Geman people?
  • The German is a good musician.
  • No.
  • You can't do that with nationalities and make it sound natural.
  • The plural would work, however.
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15 Answers
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IvanhrIs the following sentence possible when generalizing about the Geman people?
The German is a good musician.
No. You can't do that with nationalities and make it sound natural. The plural would work, however.

CJ
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Yes, it is fine as a general statement about Germans, but it is rather literary these days.
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Thanks a lot for your answers guys.

Anyway for whoever's interested I found a website that seems to suggest that "the" can only be used with a plural nationality noun (when generalizing).

Here's the link
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It does not say 'only'. The immediately preceding use does not preclude nationalities:

  1. definite article PLUS singular count noun:

    It's astonishing what the gymnast/German can do.
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Mister MicawberIt does not say 'only'. The immediately preceding use does not preclude nationalities:definite article PLUS singular count noun:It's astonishing what the gymnast/German can do.

Well, I don't know, I thought they intentionally listed the Chinese (nationality) example so as to make sure that nationality nouns are an exception. Unfortunately
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Mister MicawberIt does not say 'only'. The immediately preceding use does not preclude nationalities:definite article PLUS singular count noun:It's astonishing what the gymnast/German can do.

You're right, it doesn't, at least not explicitly. But since you and CJ disagree I'm still not sure which one is correct.
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What it's saying, I think, is that nationalities (unlike other plurals) commonly take the article. In other words--

These three are OK as general statements:

The German is a great drinker.
The gymnast is an astonishing acrobat.

The Germans are great drinkers.

but NOT:

The gymnasts are astonishing acrobats.

...
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Thanks a lot MM. I think you're right even though, as you say, this construction (the + singular, countable, nationality noun) should be avoided because it's not common nowadays and might sound really awkward to some speakers.
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Now, I didn't say that at all, Ivan. It is not awkward at all; on the contrary, I find it quite elegant. And there is no reason to avoid it. I merely said that it was literary (which is usually not awkward at all!)
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