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As in "The Survey of the American Consumer" or "The state of the American consumer". Why is the phrase singular?

curiousdannii
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nnxxn
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    It's meant in the sense of a generic individual. As in "John Q. Public". – Dan Bron Sep 18 '14 at 14:31
  • Note the definite article. "The consumer" refers to a class (consisting of all consumers in general.) Using the plural in this case would have meant referring to the individual consumers. – Kris Sep 18 '14 at 15:03
  • It's the same thing that happens in the sentence the lion is the king of the animals or the elephant is known for its culinary prowess. – oerkelens Sep 18 '14 at 15:10
  • There seems to be some difficulty with the concept of generic noun phrase. There are several kinds, using various articles. – John Lawler Sep 25 '14 at 02:10
  • Similar question: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/140154/nationality-as-mass-noun – Nemo Dec 31 '16 at 09:11

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putting the word 'the' in front of American makes it singular. If you dropped the word 'the' then you could say American consumers.

Diana
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    This doesn't explain anything. Why is this phrase used this way? – curiousdannii Sep 25 '14 at 00:50
  • no it doesn't but it does explain why it is singular instead of plural which is what you asked : "Why is the phrase singular?"

    Maybe you could be more specific in your question next time.

     – Diana Sep 25 '14 at 12:16