I’d appreciate it if someone would answer my question about the following sentence(A). Thanks in advance.
A: What’s most necessary to young people is to get a habit of thinking on their own.
(general sentence)
Would it be OK if “young people” were replaced by “the young people”?
To me, ‘the young’ will be better.
Thank you Anglophile. I just have another question. How about B?
B: What’s most necessary to young people of today is to get a habit of thinking on their own. (general sentence)
Would it be OK if “young people” were replaced by “the young people”?
I think it would with a slight change.
B: What’s most necessary to the young people of today is to get into a habit of thinking on their own. (Specific to the present time/age)
Thank you Anglophile.
Do you mean “young people of today” isn’t specific and a mere predication, while “the young people of today” is the people framed into a particular group classified as contemporary people?
Which is common in B, “young people of today” or “the young people of today”?
Whether it is ‘young people of today’ or ‘the young people of today’, it becomes specific in my view (because of ‘today’). Let’s, however, wait for other comments, particularly from the natives.
What’s most necessary to young people today is to develop a habit of thinking for themselves.
What’s most necessary to the youth of today is to develop a habit of thinking for themselves.
Thank you Beeesneees. Is the sentence, “What’s most necessary to the young people today is to develop a habit of thinking for themselves” grammatically wrong?
I just have one more question.
C: Young people of today need to develop a habit of thinking for themselves.
D: The young people of today need to develop a habit of thinking for themselves.
Both sentences are general ones. Which is correct? Or both?
…to young people today …
would be the correct form unless you were speaking about a specific group of young people. For example:
… to the young people of India today…
For your new question, however, ‘the young people…’ is standard. It is not as general as you think. You are speaking about the youth of today rather than the youth of some time in the past.
Thank you Beeesneees. I think I see your idea.
Can I say that in a posision of the subject, the theme or the topic is likely to be stated, and so it’s often specified, while in the other positions other than the subject, a mere predication is likely to be made, and often they are not specified?
Articles pose a perennial problem to the foreign users. ‘Young people today’ or ‘young people of today’ or ‘the young people of today’ is specific as it could mean any young people (not old people) anywhere in the world now. When you add a country’s name, it becomes specific to that country. The question, therefore, is whether we need to use ‘the’ to indicate the ‘specificity’ we mean with regard to the youth and the time. In my view, both are harmless and equally acceptable. It sounds somewhat like ‘generic’. Compare: Cats and tigers belong to the same family of animals vs The cat and the tiger belong to the same family of animals.
[color=blue]No, you would be adding a useless word.
I would say ‘for’ instead of “to” and ‘getting’ instead of "to get’'.
Thank you Canadian45. Sorry I’m late in replying.