2

Ambition is indispensable for both individuals and the society. Without the ambition of pursuing success, people may feel empty and meaningless in their lives, and it will be hard for the society to make any progress.

Is

... it will be hard for the society to make any progress

correct?

I am not sure whether it is because society is not a person, so I am not sure whether I can use make progress after it.

Thank you!

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    A person is not required as the subject of the verb make. Please ask a specific question about usage; you are more likely to receive a useful answer if you do. We can't serve as a rewrite desk, though!
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 6:55
  • Thanks for the comment, the question is: is '… it will be hard for the society to make any progress' correct?
    – EXL
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 7:02
  • 1
    Yes. It is correct.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 8:22
  • 2
    @Emma, we do have ambition, so if you hypothesize about not having it, you should use would rather than will. For example, "Without the ambition... it would be hard for society to make any progress". Arguably, you should also use might rather than may,
    – JavaLatte
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 18:00
  • If you talk about the society you are unambiguously referring to a particular society (eg the Philological Society, or the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings). I think you mean "society" without an articloe.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jul 30, 2020 at 10:33

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

As mentioned by @PEDant, "society" and "make progress" can be associated without any problem.

As mentioned by @JavaLatte, may and will must match. So you can say:

people will feel empty... and it will be hard for the society...

or:

people may feel empty... and it would be hard for the society...

I cannot guarantee if might is more suitable than may in the sentence above.

However, I think that the most correct way to tell it is:

people would feel empty... and it would be hard for the society...

or:

people might feel empty... and it might be hard for the society...

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .