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Mkyol Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

question on the use of the

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00"In the world of professional baseball in the U.S, many players such as Berry Bonds and Roger Clemens have attracted a lot of attention, as a result of the Mitchell Report alleging (the) baseball players of performance-enhancing drugs."02br
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00This is a sentence by me.. I would like to know if 'the' should be used or not.02br
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00The reason for me wanting to use 'the' is as follows:02br
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001) I want to refer to the professional baseball players in the U.S, and not just any baseball player02br
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00The reason that makes me hesitant in putting 'the' is as follows:02br
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001) The reader may think that I'm refering to a subset of the professional baseball players in the U.S, such as specifically those mentioned in the report, which I don't intend, really, because I want to place greater emphasis that the Michell Report alleges professional baseball players in the U.S in general, and not only limited to those specifically mentioned.02br
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00By the way, if 'the' is not used, and it's just 'baseball players', is it assumed that they are professional baseball players in the U.S. already, because I mean, it has just mentioned the professional baseball players in the U.S prior to the part in the same sentence?02br
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00Thanks.02br
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Top answer

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9 Answers
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0 .02br
00If you polish your sentence, your question disappears: 02br
01i00American baseball stars such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have attracted a lot of attention as a result of the Mitchell Report, which alleges that many professional players use performance-enhancing drugs.02i02br
00. 0-
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0Well, I don't really want it polished in order to avoid the issue though, cause I'd like it addressed so I know..02br
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00I notice that you have used 'many' in front of professional players to kind of sidestep the issue. But I still have a question whether or not the 'professional players' include baseball players in the U.S, or if it includes all baseball players in the
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0I don't think MM reworded your sentence in order to side-step your question at all. (Do you realize how insulting that sounds?) He simply gave you some very good advice -- a better way of wording your sentence!02br
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00Using 'the' in your original sentence would suggest to me that you are referring only to the previously mentioned players -- despite the usage of "suc
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0>alleging baseball players 02br
00WRONG.02br
00you allege something about someone02br
00NOT02br
00**you allege someone 02br
00If you want to use an -ing form here, say "accusing," but that's a different legal cup of tea ... 0-
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1i00I don't think MM reworded your sentence in order to side-step your question at all. (Do you realize how insulting that sounds?) He simply gave you some very good advice -- a better way of wording your sentence!02i02br
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00No quite frankly I didn't realize that it is insulting.. maybe too forward, but in order to learn I have to state what I think don't
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1font00 Hi Mkyol02font02br
01font00Your original sentence was this: 02font01blockquote
00"In the world of professional baseball in the U.S, many players such as Berry Bonds and Roger Clemens have attracted a lot of attention, as a result of the Mitchell Report alleging (the) baseball playe
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1font00Hi Yankee, first of all thanks for your kind reply.. 02font02br
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01font02font02br
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01font01i00The word 'the' is generally connected with 01b00specificity02b00. Your sentence mentioned two baseball players quite speci
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1i00In the world of professional baseball in the U.S, many players such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have attracted a lot of attention as a result of the Mitchell Report alleging that the baseball players used performance-enhancing drugs.02i02br
00Here 'the baseball players' are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. 02br
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01i00In the world
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0Thanks CJ, that does shed some (or quite a lot) light in my understanding.0-
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