vocabulary

Hi,

Is the word proletariat used correctly in this sentence?

I would feel out of place in your circle. Compared to you I am a proletariat.

No. 'Proletariat' is a collective noun for a group of people. Say Compared to you I am a member of the proletariat.

Note that some 'higher-class' women are attracted to members of the prol

While Clive is right if one wants a complete sentence, I wouldn't be surprised at such an ellipsis.

Hi,

I would be surprised. It seems like a very unnatural thing to say.

Furthermore, and generally speaking, most people who use a word like 'proletariat' are likely to have enough knowledge to use it correctly.

One could, of course, say -

I would feel out of place in your circle. Compared to you I am a proletarian.

Best wis

Compared to you I am a proletarian.

is of course the correct, direct expression.


BTW, I missed the "a" in the original posting:

Compared to you I am a proletariat.

would, of course, not work.


However, I think that it would work without article:

Hi,

Still sounds odd to me. More natural would be something like 'I belong to the proletariat'.

When I lived in Britain, we used to say slang things things like 'He's a real prole'.

Not sure I agree with you, Marius.

You can use low-class (in BrE usually working-class) adjectivally - "I'm just a working-class boy with big dreams" - but you would have to use proletarian instead of proletariat in this construction.

To me, proletariat refers only to the (social) state but not the (cultural) condition. I'd expect to hear "I'm (a) proletarian"

Lil' Ruby Rose,

IMO:

"I'm a proletariat". Wrong
"I'm proletariat". I think this works when ellipsis is implied.

But if you disagree, it's fine with me.