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Verumm Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

Public vs Society

Could you explain me, please, the difference between the words Public and Society. Context: "... members of the society began to walk around the stalls..." (at an antique fair)
Thank you.
  

Top answer

More context would be helpful, but "members of the society" presumably refers to people who belong to a society like "The Neasden Antique-Lovers' Society", or whatever (I just made up a silly name at random). "members of society" (no "the") has a roughly similar meaning to "members of the public", but the former is a bit more grand or large-scale, and the latter is more everyday, so in a situation like this one would use the latter.

— GPY

  • More context would be helpful, but "members of the society" presumably refers to people who belong to a society like "The Neasden Antique-Lovers' Society", or whatever (I just made up a silly name at random).
  • "members of society" (no "the") has a roughly similar meaning to "members of the public", but the former is a bit more grand or large-scale, and the latter is more everyday, so in a situation like this one would use the latter.
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2 Answers
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More context would be helpful, but "members of the society" presumably refers to people who belong to a society like "The Neasden Antique-Lovers' Society", or whatever (I just made up a silly name at random).

"members of society" (no "the") has a roughly similar meaning to "members of the public", but the former is a bit more grand or large-scale, and the latter is more everyday, s
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'the society' means some specific association of people who are connected in some way,
eg the society of German stamp collectors.
The use of the definite article 'the' means the society has already been identified earlier in the context.

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