TheParser
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- Joined
- Dec 8, 2009
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- Other
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- English
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- United States
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Hello!
I'm a bit confused about the use of 'the' with nationalities ending with 'ans', as grammars seem to have different opinions on this point.
Should I say/write:
the Europeans or Europeans?
the Americans or Americans?
the Russians or Russians?
(Sting sang 'the Russians', but Murphy says 'the' should be omitted).
I'd appreciate it if anyone could help.
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Verona,
An outstanding teacher at this website told me that I could quote
extensively if I gave complete credit, which I shall do at the end.
(1) The German is a good musician. Very formal; predominates in
informative writing.
(2) A German is a good musician. The most concrete and colloquial
way to express a generality. Used most appropriately when the
context is specific: I think a husband should help out with the housework.
(3) The Germans are good musicians. Used only to express generic
(in general) facts about a religious, political, national, social, or
occupational group. Group affiliation is critical.
(4) Germans are good musicians. Less formal than #1. Certainly in speech
it occurs more frequently than #1. It is important because it can be
used in all contexts and because it ranges from semiformal to
informal in register.
All of this information is hereby credited to:
Mesdames Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, The Grammar Book/ An
ESL/EFL Teacher's Course (Rowley, London, Tokyo: Newbury House
Publishers, Inc., 1983), pages 180 -181.
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
P.S. On page 560, they further admit:
"What differentiates the Germans and Germans is sometimes
difficult [my emphasis] to detect: the former views the members of the
group collectively whereas the latter generalizes via pluralization and is
more informal than the German."