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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > most every people
most every people
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ELOJOLIE274
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most every people
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hello,
i �m reading the trilogy "Eragon" (i �ve just started reading the third volume) and i came across a very peculiar structure "most every people..." - at first i thought it was a typo, but since i found this structure several times in volume 2 and a couple of times in the first chapters of volume 3, it can �t be a typo... so i �d like to have the opinion of native speakers: is this structure grammatically correct? is it unusual or quite frequent? (i dare say i read a lot - classics like Jane Austen �s novels..., or more modern novels: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Mary Higgins Clark, Sophie Kinsella, Tolkien, to name but a few) and i never read this structure before, and in my grammar books i found "almost every body" but didn �t see this structure anywhere...
thanks a lot!!!
Elodie
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10 Jul 2010
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lshorton99
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Hi
I would say most everyone but I don �t think I �ve ever used most every people - maybe most every person. It �s another way of saying almost when used like that but tends to be stylistically more formal, strangely enough.
My only thought on this is that, if I remember correctly, the writer of Eragon is very young. He may use the English language differently to how I �d expect.
Judging by your list, may I recommend Guy Gavriel Kay and Anne McCaffrey - I think you �d really enjoy them!
Lindsey
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10 Jul 2010
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yanogator
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Lindsey is right that many people use "most" to mean "almost", but it isn �t correct. She �s also right that the author of Eragon was 15 when he wrote the first volume. I would say either "most people" or "almost everyone."
I �ve only read the first book, so I don �t know what �s in the third one, but maybe it was referring to nations or races, and not individual people.
Bruce |
10 Jul 2010
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yulya_esl
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�Anne McCaffrey is amazing, great, awesome!!! )))
�
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10 Jul 2010
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almaz
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Bruce, with all due respect (and you �ve contributed so much good sense to this forum so you deserve it), perhaps you shouldn �t be so quick to say that something is or isn �t �correct � particularly when you admit yourself that many people use "most" to mean "almost". We �re talking about a living - not static - language here. Language change often comes about because �many people � choose one option over another. Language is above all a social activity and what is �acceptable � for some might not be so for others. I suppose that language and grammar, like so much else in human history, has always been and, fortunately, still is negotiable (think of the development of �till � and �until � for example).
Personally, I �ve never heard the expression �most every people � either (unless, as you suggest, it refers to a people) but perhaps it �s a West Coast, Californian thing (the Eragon author is from there).
Sorry for soapboxing a bit, but I �ve got a real down on prescriptivism at the moment.
All the best anyway,
Alex
PS On the subject of dragons and the like, what about Terry Pratchett?
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10 Jul 2010
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yanogator
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OK, Alex, I �ll change my statement to "it doesn �t follow the rules in the grammar books." I tend to be very curmudgenly, and I definitely see things as more black and white than you apparently do. No need to apologize for the soapboxing, since that �s essentially what I was doing, so yours was just a reaction to mine.
And I �d rather not think about "till" and "until", since both have been nearly replaced in the US by the unnecessary �til (I say unnecessary, because we already have till and until, so we don �t need a third option. Notice that I said "unnecessary" rather than "wrong", but I �m sure you can guess my opinion about that).
Thanks for the gentle correction.
Bruce |
10 Jul 2010
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almaz
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You�re welcome.
Regards,
Alex
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10 Jul 2010
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ELOJOLIE274
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well thanks everyone for your comments!!! i even got more than I deserved since you recommended novels for my summer!!!
i cannot read English/American books in French, which is a bit of a problem sometimes since my boyfriend is a book-worm as well, so we have the same sets of books, mine are in English, his are in French... so thanks, i �m always looking for new books to read anyway ;)
take care, and have a great summer!!
Elodie |
11 Jul 2010
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Apodo
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I �d be interested in the context. Was the author using �people � to mean a nation or race of people ?
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11 Jul 2010
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bvnreddy
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hai
this is narasimha reddy
we want english teachers
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19 Jul 2010
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