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MariaRC Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
(The) migrants
Greetings, I have asked this question on another forum but the answers were contradictorial and only confused me. Maybe I will have better luck here.
I was at a cafe with a native English speaker. We were discussing a political problem in a European country when she said:
Well, you can thank the migrants for that.
No migrants had been mentioned so I asked her which ones she was referring to. She said, the ones who have come to the country in the past year.
Could it be said: "Well, you can thank migrants for that"?
I can never get this difference right. My English instructor said both are correct. He told me not to worry too much if I don't always know whether to omit the definite article before plural nouns or not in English, because in many situations it's up to the speaker and can be a style choice.
In this case,
Well, you can thank the migrants for that. - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about. E.g. In this context, those who have come to the country in the past year…
Well, you can thank migrants for that. - any/some/all migrants, but the speaker is not thinking about any in particular.
Thusly, in this situation, both choices are grammatically correct.
Could someone please confirm this? Thank you.
Maria
I was at a cafe with a native English speaker. We were discussing a political problem in a European country when she said:
Well, you can thank the migrants for that.
No migrants had been mentioned so I asked her which ones she was referring to. She said, the ones who have come to the country in the past year.
Could it be said: "Well, you can thank migrants for that"?
I can never get this difference right. My English instructor said both are correct. He told me not to worry too much if I don't always know whether to omit the definite article before plural nouns or not in English, because in many situations it's up to the speaker and can be a style choice.
In this case,
Well, you can thank the migrants for that. - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about. E.g. In this context, those who have come to the country in the past year…
Well, you can thank migrants for that. - any/some/all migrants, but the speaker is not thinking about any in particular.
Thusly, in this situation, both choices are grammatically correct.
Could someone please confirm this? Thank you.
Maria
Top answer
MariaRC Well, you can thank the migrants for that. - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about. g.
- MariaRC Well, you can thank the migrants for that.
- - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about.
- g.
- In this context, those who have come to the country in the past year… You're right.
- And I think the speaker wasn't aware that the listener didn't know which migrants were being referred to.
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6 Answers
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MariaRCWell, you can thank the migrants for that. - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about. E.g. In this context, those who have come to the country in the past year…You're right. And I think the speaker wasn't aware that the listener didn't know which mi
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MariaRCWell, you can thank the migrants for that. - if no migrants have been mentioned, the speaker must think of a certain group, even if the listener is unaware of which ones he is talking about.Not necessarily. the may be used for special emphasis; then the is given unexpected stress (in an utterance) which is otherwise absent in the conversa
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MariaRCGreetings, I have asked this question on another forum but the answers were contradictorial and only confused me. Maybe I will have better luck here.I was at a cafe with a native English speaker. We were discussing a political problem in a European country when she said:Well, you can thank the migrants for that.No migrants had been mentioned so I asked her which on
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Anonymousen include the when talking about something in general,It could be argued, however, that the migrants being referred to is a specific and definite group of people and using the merely reflects/supports such an assumption. After all, we're not talking about all migrants in the world.
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