How to avoid using possessive determiners when talking about "taking care of your family" to be more formal and general?

Question

In this society, taking care of your family is the most important.

I want to be more general and formal here, so I'm trying to remove "your". Can I replace the bolded part with the following?

"___ care" tends to be used for more restricted senses of "care." "Taking care of ___" just conveys "caring about and tending to ____ in a general way," but "wound care" is first aid, "elder care" is nursing, "child care" is babysitting, etc. "Family care" suggests to me, at first glance, an all-ages medical practice. — Andy Bonner, Commented Jul 29 at 14:53
the most important (what). Important is also an adjective. Importance is the noun. — James Mathai, Commented Jul 29 at 15:45
I don't think "your family" would be considered informal here. But there seem to be some authorities who forbid certain pronouns (commonly "I", "we", but also sometimes "you"), so I guess you have to follow the rules. — Stuart F, Commented Jul 29 at 16:11
It's not the focus of this question, but I think the premise is questionable. Using "your" this way is understood to be general. And while you might avoid it for the most stringent academic writing, it's not an inappropriately informal usage for most other contexts. — Andy Bonner, Commented Jul 29 at 16:11
Thank you all! If I want to play it safe, is "caring for families" okay? Because each person usually only has one family, I'm not sure if the phrase is correct. — An IELTS Learner, Commented Jul 30 at 2:51

Lambie · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-29 18:58:51Z

2

taking care of family= YES, family is a collective noun and requires no determiner
family care= is not used in this sense of taking care of one's family
taking care of one's family= Sure, one's family, their family, our family. one's is a determiner

But the last one does contain a determiner.

answered Jul 29 at 14:48

Lambie

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1

But possessive determiners (one's, your, my,...) are determiners. Also, it's perfectly okay to use taking care of the family in OP's context.
– FumbleFingers
Commented Jul 29 at 15:31
She said she didn't want one. That's how answered the question.
– Lambie
Commented Jul 29 at 15:43
1

It would appear from the way the question is framed that OP doesn't realize one's is a "possessive determiner". And it's not obvious they understand that the is also a determiner - which is perfectly natural even in the most formal contexts. It's only really your that's informal (we don't normally use references to me and "non-specific" you in formal text).
– FumbleFingers
Commented Jul 29 at 17:43
I find taking care of family very odd. I accept that there are contexts in which one can use family without a determiner, but this isn't one of them, for me.
– Colin Fine
Commented Jul 29 at 22:43
Thank you all! So far, "taking care of the/one's family" is the appropriate choice that no one has disagreed with. I hope that there are more suggestions.
– An IELTS Learner
Commented Jul 30 at 0:44

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