What's the difference between most, most of, and almost?
Which one should I use in the following sentence?
Most students passed the test.
or
Most of students passed the test.
or
Almost students passed the test.
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As a learner: Where did you see the last sentence? Almost is an adverb, I guess it should be something like "almost all the students passed the test". However, I guess you may hear that in a very rare scenario in which different groups took the test and the student, not the other groups like workers, etc., passed the test.– CardinalCommented May 6, 2017 at 18:02
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1 Answer
It depends on the context.
Use most to refer to a quantity of an unspecific group. We use most when we are speaking in general and do not have a specific group of people or things in mind.
Most students pass the test. (Speaking generally about an undefined population)
Use most of the X to refer to a quantity of a specific group. Note the expression includes a phrase defining the number to a specific group.
Most of the students (of my class/school etc.) passed the test. (Speaking about a specific sample of the population)
Ref: http://www.grammar-quizzes.com
Almost can be used with expressions of time and quantity. In other words you have to define the quantity.
Almost half of the students passed the test.
