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Snappy Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
"People in this class" or "The people in this class"
I found this sentence in the previous answered questions:
People in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics.
My question is why there is no "The" before "people."
Please tell me if my understanding is correct.
If it is a small class and only regular members attend the class, "The" will be added as follows:
The people in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics. or The students in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics.
If it is rather a big class and regular members as well as other students can attend on an occasional basis, "The" will be left out.
Am I correct?
One more thing; Can I say, "People in this class have a good knowledge of mathematics" instead of "...in mathematics."?
People in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics.
My question is why there is no "The" before "people."
Please tell me if my understanding is correct.
If it is a small class and only regular members attend the class, "The" will be added as follows:
The people in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics. or The students in this class have a good knowledge in mathematics.
If it is rather a big class and regular members as well as other students can attend on an occasional basis, "The" will be left out.
Am I correct?
One more thing; Can I say, "People in this class have a good knowledge of mathematics" instead of "...in mathematics."?
Top answer
Hi Snappy, I omit "the" in this sentence when I mean "in general;" not every person in the class without any exceptions. I might be able to point out one person in the class that does not. Or maybe I just don't know about everyone's knowledge, but I have not seen an exception in my experience with this class.
- Hi Snappy, I omit "the" in this sentence when I mean "in general;" not every person in the class without any exceptions.
- I might be able to point out one person in the class that does not.
- Or maybe I just don't know about everyone's knowledge, but I have not seen an exception in my experience with this class.
- If all of the people in the class have a good knowledge of mathematics, then I would use "the".
- I prefer "of" rather than "in".
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6 Answers
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Hi Snappy,
I omit "the" in this sentence when I mean "in general;" not every person in the class without any exceptions. I might be able to point out one person in the class that does not. Or maybe I just don't know about everyone's knowledge, but I have not seen an exception in my experience with this class.
If all of the people in the class have a good knowledge of mathematics
I omit "the" in this sentence when I mean "in general;" not every person in the class without any exceptions. I might be able to point out one person in the class that does not. Or maybe I just don't know about everyone's knowledge, but I have not seen an exception in my experience with this class.
If all of the people in the class have a good knowledge of mathematics
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Thank you for your replay. It was very helpful.
I found the following sentence on a British music school's website.
People in this class are also encouraged to take part in the Cabaret Ensemble.
In this case, doesn't "people" refer to people in general who will join the class in future as well as those who are currently studying in class?
I found the following sentence on a British music school's website.
People in this class are also encouraged to take part in the Cabaret Ensemble.
In this case, doesn't "people" refer to people in general who will join the class in future as well as those who are currently studying in class?
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Hi Snappy
SnappyIn this case, doesn't "people" refer to people in general who will join the class in future as well as those who are currently studying in the class?You do need the word "the" in your question.
SnappyPeople in this class are also encouraged to take part in the Cabaret Ensemble.
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Thank you for your replay. Definite and indefinite articles are difficult to us, because our language (Japanese) does not have grammatical articles.
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