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MariaRC Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

(The) US President

I've asked this on another forum, but I am still unclear. Which one is correct:

When I was small, I wanted to become US President.
When I was small, I wanted to become the US President.

The answer provided by those on the other forum seem to be that "the US President" is unnatural/wrong in that context, but i hear that in daily speech every day. I just wanted to confirm. Thank you!

Maria
  

Top answer

MariaRC When I was small, I wanted to become US President. That's unnatural and ungrammatical. MariaRC When I was small, I wanted to become the US President.

— Teechr

  • MariaRC When I was small, I wanted to become US President.
  • That's unnatural and ungrammatical.
  • MariaRC When I was small, I wanted to become the US President.
  • "The US p resident" is a reference to a person, not to a job.
  • "
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12 Answers
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MariaRCWhen I was small, I wanted to become US President.
That's unnatural and ungrammatical.
MariaRCWhen I was small, I wanted to become the US President.
"The US president" is a reference to a person, not to a job.
You can say, e.g., "I would love to meet the US president one day."

So back to your sente
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teechr MariaRCWhen I was small, I wanted to become US President.That's unnatural and ungrammatical.MariaRCWhen I was small, I wanted to become the US President."The US president" is a reference to a person, not to a job.You can say, e.g., "I would love to meet the US president one day."So back to your sentence, say "When I was young, I wanted to become the president of th
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A few more examples (from books/biographies):

'I want to become president,' Navalny said in an interview...

"I want to become president, and the only way I can is to become vice presi- dent." (Hubert Humphrey)

WHY DO PERSONS want to become president?

I would love some/any clarification!
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I am the president.
I want to be president.
I want to be (the) president of the United States when I grow up.
My dream is to become (the) president of the senior class.

All the above are natural in American English.
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AlpheccaStarsI am the president.I want to be president.I want to be (the) president of the United States when I grow up.My dream is to become (the) president of the senior class.All the above are natural in American English.
Thank you!!

So this is natural in American English: "He wanted to be US president ever since he was a boy". That's how I wrote i
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MariaRCdoes the "US" in front of it make it wrong?
It is a significant factor in this discussion.

For some reason journalists want to write "US president" instead of "president of the U.S.". These same journalists would never dream of writing "China president", "France president", or "Mexico president".

That aside, "president" is a title, bu
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For what it's worth, "(the) US President" sounds completely normal to me. I never would have considered that it might be wrong. I am from the UK though.
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GPYFor what it's worth, "(the) US President" sounds completely normal to me. I never would have considered that it might be wrong. I am from the UK though.
Do you have UK ministers? Or a UK Queen?

They sound off to my ear.

CJ
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CalifJimDo you have UK ministers? Or a UK Queen?
"UK ministers" does not sound massively familiar to me, and "(the) UK Queen" sounds a bit odd. However, various other combinations, e.g. "the UK Prime Minister", "the UK Government", etc., sound normal to me.

Edit: Actually, I think "UK ministers" is OK, it's just that they are not so often referred to
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Thank you, CalifJim and GPY. I see "(the) US President" all the time, both in newspapers and in books. So all I can do is imitate.

I think it's the "US" part that threw me off. Thank you!
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