In the following sentence in a problem I was assigned, can I use the definite article before "less frequently used"?
___(/,The) less frequently used words or constructions are more likely to be altered to fit the patterns of more common ones.
I was told by my teacher that the right answer here should be a "zero article" (indicated by the "/" in the question), but I don't understand why. Doesn't the attributive "less frequently used" make the noun phrase "words or constructions" more definite?