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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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