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Suwon Kim Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Man an a man!

You know when you native speakers mean generality, you use a/an, the, or plural , such as
A cow is a diligent animal.
The cow is a diligent animal.
Cows are diligent animals.

Then what happened to the following sentences?
Would you explain the difference between man and a man, woman and a woman?
I mean how do you mean generality in case of human beings, males, or females. Thank you so much in advance.
Man is the lord of creation.
A man is known by the company he keeps.
Woman usually survives man.
A man prefers a blonde.
Men prefer blondes.
  

Top answer

"a man" is an individual adult male human. "a woman" is an individual adult female human. g.

— GPY

  • "a man" is an individual adult male human.
  • "a woman" is an individual adult female human.
  • g.
  • "Man is destroying the environment").
  • The use of "Woman" to mean womankind collectively is unusual but not unknown.
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14 Answers
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"a man" is an individual adult male human. "a woman" is an individual adult female human.

"Man" (often with a capital) means the human race (e.g. "Man is destroying the environment").

The use of "Woman" to mean womankind collectively is unusual but not unknown.

The sentence "Woman usually survives man" is unusual. It could be an error, or it could be a deliberate use of
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Thank you for your explanation, but as you know, in cas of "A man is known by the company he keeps," "A man" does not mean an individual adult male human, but it means the human race, doesn't it?
There is a sentences in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary; p.1009; "Woman is usually physically weaker than man."
In this sentence, "woman" and "man" mean "women" and "men" respectively, don't
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Suwon Kim"A man is known by the company he keeps," "A man" does not mean an individual adult male human, but it means the human race, doesn't it?
It means an individual, but that individual is unidentified and used as a representative of men in general. It can hardly be understood to include women.
Suwon KimThere is a senten
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You can see at page 1266 of Longman Dictionary that "Woman lives longer than man in most countries."
Would you explain when native speakers mean generality in English in a grammatically correct way.
I am sorry to say i cannot contradict prestigious dictionaries.
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Suwon Kim i cannot contradict prestigious dictionaries.
Nobody is contradicting a dictionary, though dictionaries are not infallible. GPY merely said that the example given was an odd one for a learner's dictionary. I agree.
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Suwon Kim"Woman lives longer than man in most countries."
It is unnatural English. The editor was obviously asleep.
It should be this:

(On average,} women live longer than men in most countries.
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The dictionary says another sentence like ; (without a or the) female human being in general: Woman has been portrayed by artists in many ways. what do you think about the sentence then?
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That is more acceptable than the one we were talking about. I don't think it's a great example for leaners, though.
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I note that there are only six citations for ". Woman is" and two for ". Woman has" in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. I would not want a learner to take any of them as an example of 'woman' used in this way.
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Suwon KimWoman has been portrayed by artists in many ways. what do you think about the sentence then?
It gives a bad taste in my mouth. The natural sentence would be:

The ideal woman has been portrayed by artists in many ways.

That is a thesis for this beautiful video essay:
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