When did we stop adding "the/a" in front of "majority"?

Posted by Rowdy_Roddy_2022@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 17 comments

This has been creeping in more and more. At first I thought it was an Americanism but I'm seeing it more and more in the UK as well. What is the reason for this? EG. "A majority of those polled believe..." "The majority of citizens agreed" Has now just become "Majority of citizens agreed"

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17 Comments

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Suitable-Context-271@reddit

It's an Americanism as far as I can see.

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Effective_Horror_972@reddit

Great. Another thing that will probably bother me every day. Now that I will notice it more often. ......dose instead of does, is one I've noticed getting used much more often than not, recently. If you hadn't noticed this litlle quirk as well. ........ You're very welcome.

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Substantial_Page_221@reddit

Does vs dose could be something to do with swipe keyboards

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JourneyThiefer@reddit

Who actually gives a shit lmao

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SausageAndBeans88@reddit

This isn’t happening.

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AF_II@reddit

I have literally *never* noticed this formulation, without a/the. Can you point to a substantial number of examples of this usage (outside headlines), otherwise I suspect it's just something you've noticed once and are now seeing all the time.

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Rowdy_Roddy_2022@reddit (OP)

Stick "majority" into the Reddit search bar. It's not quite endemic yet but I've noticed it enough for it not to be a one off. The turning point for me was seeing a journalist on the national TV news use it in this way.

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RickJLeanPaw@reddit

‘Majority rule’ is the only context I can recall this being used in (be it SA or NI).

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AF_II@reddit

I did. I don't see the phenomenon you're claiming here - when a/the isn't used it's for good grammatical reason (e.g. "in white majority cities") or it's in North American subs where someone is clearly posting a shortened headline. IDK abou tthe one journalist example you've got but people make slips while speaking, and one example isn't a trend. Again, unless you can point to a lot of uses of this in written UK sources I think this is a thing you're noticing way out of proportion to how often it actually happens.

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Plenty_Air_6512@reddit

I’m also not even sure that’s an Americanism tbh because I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it when in America or watching/listening to American media.

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AF_II@reddit

To be fair "americanism" on here mostly seems to be code for "some kind of language or activity I don't like".

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LudwigsUnholySpade@reddit

Just wait until they find out a load of people up north say pants not trousers. And worst of all, those bloody Brummies saying mom instead of mum.

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LondonCycling@reddit

And the ones which are genuinely American spellings, are spellings we were using in Britain long before the US even existed - in fact they're merely using the spelling and grammar we gave them.

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palishkoto@reddit

I've only ever come across this in headlines, which will be because they need to keep within a certain character count to make it fit.

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Wide_Television747@reddit

For headlines I assume it's just cutting it down to make it shorter to read and more eyecatching as a result. Never read it as just "majority" within an actual article or piece though.

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East_Variety_877@reddit

Back in the good old days, we used to throw the or a in front of majority like it was going out of style. But now, we're all fancy and just say majority by itself.

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