"In recent years" vs "in the recent years" - English Stack ...

I don't think it's a matter of correctness. Both might be grammatical, but "in recent years" ... EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore "Inrecentyears"vs"intherecentyears" AskQuestion Asked 10years,2monthsago Modified 8years,9monthsago Viewed 231ktimes 21 7 Dowewriteintherecentyearsorinrecentyears?Forexample, Intherecentyears,theinfluenceofblablablaonblablablahas grownrapidly. Inrecentyears,theinfluenceofblablablaonblablablahas grownrapidly. AsfarasIknow,botharecorrect.Butwhichonesoundsmorenatural(morecorrectfromanativespeaker'spointofview)ordoesitnotmatter? word-usagearticles Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedJun15,2020at7:40 CommunityBot 1 askedFeb29,2012at11:00 joergljoergl 34711goldbadge55silverbadges1717bronzebadges Addacomment  |  5Answers 5 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 29 Nativespeakerswouldgenerallypreferthesecond.Thearticleisunnecessaryandawkward.Botharecorrect.Personally,Ifindthemallawkwardandammuchmorelikelytosaythingslike"overthelastfewyears"orjust"recently". Share Improvethisanswer Follow editedFeb29,2012at22:02 answeredFeb29,2012at11:20 DavidSchwartzDavidSchwartz 10k22goldbadges3434silverbadges4141bronzebadges 2 3 Isomeonesaid"Intherecentyears"Iwouldunderstandhimquitewell,butIwouldknowthatEnglishisnothisnativelanguage. – GEdgar Feb29,2012at15:13 3 Howwouldyouknowthat,@GEdgar?Itcouldbeanativespeakertryingtodeceiveormisleadyou. – JamesWaldby-jwpat7 Feb29,2012at16:39 Addacomment  |  8 Intherecentyearsishardlyfoundatall.Comparedwithinrecentyears,Ngramsshowsaflatlineforitsuse.TheBritishNationalCorpushastworecordsforit,against2344forinrecentyears.ThefiguresfromtheCorpusofContemporaryAmericanEnglishare11and9450. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb29,2012at12:06 BarrieEnglandBarrieEngland 138k1010goldbadges232232silverbadges391391bronzebadges 4 1 Purelymyopinion,butitseemstome"recentyears"isnormallyonlyusedinrelationtothepresent.Idon'tthinkyoucanproperlysay,forexample,"In1916,Einstein,whohadinrecentyearsworkedattheSwissPatentOffice,wasappointedpresidentoftheGermanPhysicalSociety".GoogleBooksinitiallysaysthereareabout1,410,000resultsforthathighlightedtext,butscrollingthroughthemeventuallyrevealsjust175-ofwhichquiteafewarejustduplicates. – FumbleFingers Feb29,2012at15:39 1 @FumbleFingers:Thatseemsright.TheOED’sfirstdefinitionis‘Doneormadeinaperiodofthepastcomparativelyclosetothepresent;thathasjusthappenedortakenplace.’However,theBNCgivesusthis,fromMargaretDrabble:‘HewasloyaltotheoldLeft,wasAlan,unliketheirturncoatfatherwhohadinrecentyearsbeenwooedby,andhad,itseemed,espoused,theradicalRight.' – BarrieEngland Feb29,2012at15:46 1 Ididn'tmeantoimplyitcouldneverbeusedthatway,justthatit'satleast"unusual".ArguablyDrabble'susageis"artisticlicense"intendedtoinjectasenseofimmediacyintothebygoneperiodofwhichshe'swriting. – FumbleFingers Feb29,2012at15:59 1 @FumbleFingers:Agreed. – BarrieEngland Feb29,2012at16:26 Addacomment  |  5 I'mreadinganarticletitled"ACorpusAnalysisof(The)Last/Next+TemporalNouns"intheJournalofEnglishLinguisticsbyIsaiahWonHoYoo,andhewritesthatinconstructionslike"lastyear"theadditionofthedefinitearticleshiftsthefocus,ortheinitialpointintimecoordinates,inthisway: (Theyearis2013andapersonisspeakingofhisfriend'searlierstatement:) Hesaidin2003wewilltravelabroadtogethernextyear.(meaning,in 2014) PuttinginTHEshiftsthefocustothepersoninthephrase: Hesaidin2003wewilltravelabroadtogetherthenextyear. (meaning,in2004) FumbleFingersmentionedthisaspectinhiscommentsatthispage. MaybethisTHE-inducedtransformationwith"last\next+atemporalnoun"isrelevantto"inrecentyears"also. Inthearticle,I.Yoousestheterms"deicticallyanchoredcodingtime"vs."undeicticallyanchoredpredicatedtime".(seedeixisatWikipedia) Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredJul29,2013at15:15 CowperKettleCowperKettle 3,63411goldbadge2222silverbadges5050bronzebadges Addacomment  |  3 AsDavidsaid,intheexampleyouprovide,thearticleisawkwardandunnecessary.Yettherearetimeswhenthearticlewouldbewarranted,dependingontheopeningclause: Inthepast,theinfluenceofblablablaonblablablagrew rapidly. Overthepasttwoyears,theinfluenceofblablablaon blablablahasgrownrapidly. Inthedaysahead,theinfluenceofblablablaonblablablaisexpectedtogrowrapidly. Inthefirsttwoexamples,thearticleisneeded.Inthethird,thearticlecouldbeincludedoromitted,butI'dprefertoincludeit. Idon'tknowifthere'sasurefireguidelinethatalwaysdescribeswhentoincludeoromitthearticle. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb29,2012at11:32 J.R.J.R. 57.9k55goldbadges9292silverbadges190190bronzebadges 1 Thanksfortheadditionalinformation.IwillacceptDavidsanswer,though,becauseitmoredirectlyanswersthequestion. – joergl Feb29,2012at12:14 Addacomment  |  2 Idon'tthinkit'samatterofcorrectness.Bothmightbegrammatical,but"inrecentyears"isanestablishedidiom,while"intherecentyears"isn't.That'swhythefirstsoundsmore"natural"-it'snotmatterofgrammar,butofpopularityandacceptedusage. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb29,2012at11:39 AvnerShahar-KashtanAvnerShahar-Kashtan 6,75311goldbadge3131silverbadges4040bronzebadges Addacomment  |  Highlyactivequestion.Earn10reputation(notcountingtheassociationbonus)inordertoanswerthisquestion.Thereputationrequirementhelpsprotectthisquestionfromspamandnon-answeractivity. Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedword-usagearticlesoraskyourownquestion. 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