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I mean, with one statement, can I apply the statement to each case in English?

For example,

One who was wise became a king.

I want to apply only this statement to many cases that everyone who was wise became a king, so I don’t need to say several statements or don’t need to use plurals.

ColleenV
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Gate Pending
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  • What's wrong with exactly what you said: "Everyone who was wise became a king"? – stangdon Sep 09 '21 at 11:34
  • Yes, but I want to make only one statement, and share the statement for each one. For example, grammar books say “an adjective modifies a noun,” it can be applied to each adjective. – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 11:40
  • You need to change the sentence somehow if you want it to generalize. As it stands now, it’s particularized (one specific person was wise and became king; it cannot be understood to be saying all those who are wise become kings). I’m not clear on why you want to avoid plurals. – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 11:53
  • @Dan Bron and Science books can generalize with a singular (a magnet attracts, not magnets attract) – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 12:02
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    You can say "a wise man becomes a king", but without more context it's ambiguous whether this means one particular wise man becomes a king, or every wise man becomes a king. (Note to native speakers, cf. a fool and his money are soon parted) – stangdon Sep 09 '21 at 12:07
  • @stanhdon Yes, but I want to use it in a past tense. A fool and His money were soon parted, a wise man became a king. Is it fine to use a past tense? – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 12:09
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    In both your examples, the subject of the sentence is a noun, not a noun phrase, like your “one who is wise”. And the verb is not in the past tense, and not a conjunction. They also have atomic verbs for the concept expressed: “modify”, “attract”; there is no atomic verb for “to become a king” specifically. You can take those cues and transform your sentence thus: “the wise rule” or “the wise will rule” or “the wise are crowned” or “the wise will be crowned”. There, now you have a generalized statement without any plurals. If you find a fitting noun to mean “a wise person”, you could use that. – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 12:09
  • @Dan Bron why does only a present tense fit? – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 12:11
  • @Iloveeverybody I showed you future tense too. Because things in the past are done, completed, over. How can something that’s over be applied to everything that is and yet to come? – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 12:12
  • @Dan Bron No I mean applied to wise men in the past not everyone I’m sorry to mislead you I want to every wise men in the past became kings. – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 12:16
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    @Iloveeverybody Fine, “the wise used to be crowned”. But this is very different from your two examples of adjectives and magnets which are universalizing; they convey an idea that is always true: past, present, and future. – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 12:18
  • @Dan Bron Can I use just “a wise man” “the wise” is plural I don’t want to use plural because it doesn’t feel fresh. – Gate Pending Sep 09 '21 at 12:20
  • @Iloveeverybody “The wise” is mass (non-count), not plural. And as pointed out by stangdon, you can say “a wise man used to be king”, but this can be interpreted (and will be, by default) as a single event, like when Bartholemew the Wise was crowned kind of East Madeupivania. You can fix this by using the definite article, “Used to be, the scholar was crowned” or whatever. The point is to make a rule you have to point at a class. Adjectives are a class, magnets are a class, the wise are a class, etc. but the indefinite article specifies a particular. – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 12:23
  • See this question, link in this comment, and its answers: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/22647/uses-of-the-definite-article-the-in-generic-noun-phrases#comment42539_22647 – Dan Bron Sep 09 '21 at 12:26
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    I regard "the wise" as plural (in, e.g., "the wise are always successful"). A mass or non-count noun is one that is grammatically singular ("the mud is annoying"), whereas "the wise" is grammatically plural. – rjpond Sep 09 '21 at 15:01

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