Usage of "the common man"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Before TV, the common man seldom had the opportunity to see and hear his leaders express their views

=> Does the sentence sound natural and correct? (I think “the common man” should be replaced by “common men”)

Many thanks
Nessie

2

‘to see and hear his leaders’ suggests singular noun be the subject.

3

“The common man” means something like “the average person” or “the ordinary person”. We use the singular in these expressions, but they’re meant collectively.

4

Like ‘everyone’. :slight_smile:

5

Is ‘the common man’ something like ‘the average Joe’?

6

He is indeed. But the expression ‘the common man’ is more standard. I’d prefer ‘he is an ordinary person’ or ‘he is a normal guy’ since the word common has a slight derogatory connotation.

7

How about other choices for the original such as: common folk, commoner, commonalty, commons, etc. to avoid the gender. (Of course ‘man’ could be good enough to mean ‘person’).

8

I don’t think “common” has a derogatory connotation in the US in the phrase “the common man”. In fact, it sounds a tiny bit respectful to me. Maybe it’s because we’re so far from monarchy.

9

Thanks all, but I still wonder why “the” is used here. There’s no definite meaning who that man is, right? So why don’t we use “common men” instead? I think it will make more sense…

10

It’s because we’re not talking about people together in massive groups, but about all people as individuals.

11

[color=violet]Uhm… sorry Jamie, but I don’t get what you mean. :frowning:

12

If you said “common men”, that would mean the entire mass of ordinary people. We imagine thousands and thousands of people who are all ordinary.

When we hear “the common man”, we think of one average individual who is representative of all people of his type. Sometimes in slang we refer to “the common man” as “Joe Average”.

13

Thanks a lot, Jamie
But why do we have to refer to one average individual who is representative of all people of his type instead of refering to many people in general? I’ve never seen this usage before.

Many thanks
Nessie.

14

We use the in academic or formal language, mainly to describe typical characteristics. We always use a singular verb:
The seagull is a scavenging bird. (I think it’s something like this.)
And I agree with Jamie, that we imagine one person, not a whole group in general. Though it’s up to you how to express the same idea in your utterance.

15

Nessie, whether or not you’ve seen this usage before is immaterial. It’s very common. However, you can choose to have your readers imagine all people of a given type en masse, or you can choose to have them imagine one representative person.

16

Thanks a lot, Jamie and Inga. So that usage is very common? :open_mouth:
Then could you please give me some more examples?

Thank you very much in advance
Nessie.

17

Here are some examples:

  1. The emphatic time of history is not the emphatic time of the common man, who throughout the change of nations feels an itch on his shin, a pain in his head, hunger, thirst, a lack of sleep… (Stephen Crane)

  2. Except for the lightning conductor, it was 250 years before electricity stepped out of the cabinet of scientific curiosities into the life of the common man… (H.G. Wells)

  3. Democracy is not founded on pity for the common man; democracy is founded on reverence for the common man… (G.K. Chesterton)

  4. The virtues of the common man might perhaps signify vices and weaknesses in a philosopher. (From a translation of Nietzsche)

I don’t know whether anyone else will agree; but it seems to me that while we can pluralise

  1. The barn owl is an attractive bird.

to

  1. Barn owls are attractive birds.

“common men” isn’t an entirely satisfactory plural for “the common man”; and that instead, we have to resort to e.g. “ordinary people”.

Best wishes,

MrP

18

I’ll second that.

19

What a beautiful, very true statement! G.K. Chesterton is an endless source of quotations that are beautiful expressions of the truth. And many of them are extremely funny.

I also agree.

20

Thanks all,
I never know this usage is so popular. However I still have two more queries:

  1. Which usage is more commonly used: “the common man” or “common men”?
  2. Sorry for my dumbness, but so far I still don’t get when we should use “the common man” and when “common men” :frowning: