An adult has two colds per year. vs The adults have two colds per day.

[Roostaamir]

hi everyone.
I have a serious and confusing grammatic question:

when speaking generic,we can say "The tiger is dangerous" for example.
but why cant we say "The adult has two colds per year".
and we should say "An adult has two colds per year",or "The adults have two colds per day".

thanx.

[Alan]

Hi,

You can say either 'an adult' or 'adults'. It really depends how specific you want to be. If you say 'the adult', you would have to refer back to some particular group of adults.

Alan
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[Roostaamir]

[Roostaamir]

Hi again.I,m in a hurry a bit.would anyone please help me find my answer?

[Alan]

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Hi,

It's not really the word but the use of the article. If I am talking about specifics, I use the definite article as in: This is a community centre where the adults have their own place and so do the children.

Again referring to animals for example: Although this bear is very small now, the adult will grow to about 7 feet.

Alan
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[Roostaamir]

its really confusing.
I know that when our sentence is about science and electronics,we can use the+single noun to speak generic. .like what u've said :Although this bear is very small now, the adult will grow to about 7 feet.
but what about other sentences?
Can u give me an example of a sentence that is generic,and obeys this rule:the+single noun.And not about science and electronics,of course.
(if the sentence includes the word"child"it is much more better.I mean give me an example with "the child")
thanks again for your reply

[Uni2lenz]

Please I'm new comer so I'm still confuses n need helps

[Alan]

Hi Roostaamir,

I think we need to go back to your original question, which was:

[James]

BTW, referring to "The adults have two colds per day", I would like to ask, sir, what kind of adults are likely to have two colds per day? Do they suffer from the swine flu recently?

[Roostaamir]

Alan would u please answer my questions exactly?I mean give me the example I want.
thanx

[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Roostamir,

I think Alan has given you a completely understandable answer. What do you want else? Maybe the following suit you. "The tiger (every tiger) is a dangerous animal." But your sentence is from the sphere of statistics:"A tigress (not every tigress) has one litter a year." So is with your sentence: "An adult (not every adult) has two colds a year." Some adults may have three or four colds a year.

Yuri
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