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I've seen many people saying ‘most of these + nouns’ but haven't seen one who says just ‘most of these’

For example, I've seen a sentence like ‘most of these products are...’ but never seen just ‘most of these are ...’

I wonder if I just can say ‘most of these are ...’

2 Answers 2

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The word "these" assumes that the object pointed by it is know, or will be introduced immediately. Otherwise, it is just ambiguous.

If I say:

I did this.

or:

I did most of these.

What will you understand? Probably not much, because there is no object to which "this / these" to point at.

This is why people usually say "most of these products" instead of "most of these".


You do not need to specify what "these" are if the objects and the other person are there with you and you can just point out to "these" with your finger:

What is the price of these?

You and the other person will know what it is about, but somebody listening to an audio recording will know the price, but will have no idea for which product.

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  • Thank you very much for your answer !! Helped me a lot
    – Chija
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 15:31
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You can. Think about the sentence "most of this is mine." Does it seem correct to you? If it does, great, because it is - demonstrative pronouns can be used instead of nouns/noun phrases. "These" is just like "this" in this respect. Here are some examples of "most of these" in a sentence:

I think most of these are French textbooks.

Most of these are "global cities", centers of trade, international finance and corporate or government headquarters.

Most of these are charged with minor or petty crimes, and are first-time offenders.

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  • Thank you very much! It helped me a lot!
    – Chija
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 10:12

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