23.    the + adjective with a plural meaning

A.     blind, deaf, disabled, healthy/sick, living/dead, rich/poor, unemployed and certain other adjectives describing the human character or condition can be preceded by the and used to represent a class of persons. These expressions have a plural meaning; they take a plural verb and the pronoun is they:

The poor get poorer; the rich get richer.

the can be used in the same way with national adjectives ending in ch or sh:

the Dutch       the Spanish      the Welsh and can be used similarly with national adjectives ending in se or ss:

the Burmese      the Chinese      the Japanese      the Swiss though it is just possible for these to have a singular meaning.

B.     Note that the + adjective here refers to a group of people considered in a general sense only. If we wish to refer to a particular group, we must add a noun:

These seats are for the disabled.

The disabled members of our party were let in free.

The French like to eat well.

The French tourists complained about the food.

Some colors can be used in the plural to represent people but these take s like nouns: the blacks, the whites.

C.     the + adjective can occasionally have a singular meaning: the accused (person)       the unexpected (thing)