You wouldn’t think youth versus youths would be a word confusion. After all, youths is the plural form whichever side you come down on.
Youth and youths can be used generically to refer to a time when we were young, a population of young people (young men and women), or a specific young man (or young men).
Youth almost always works when referring to young people.
It’s best to avoid youths — no, not like that! — I simply mean it will probably be less confusing for your audience to use a more familiar term like teenagers, boys, or young adults instead.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
If you found this post on “Youth versus Youths” interesting, consider subscribing to KD Did It, if you’d like to track this post for future updates.
| Youth | Youths |
|---|---|
Youth Peers Through the Viewfinder by Sergeant Jacob H Smith is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license, courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, via Picryl. |
.jpg)
Boy Scouts Camp Ro Fre La, 1927, is in the public domain as a contribution from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, via Wikimedia Commons. — A pool full of youths. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: youths |
Morpheme: youth
Plural noun |
| Noun: [In mass noun] The period between childhood and adult age
A young man
|
Plural noun: Refers to the young people of a society In the sense of more than one young person, especially a young male |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: He had been a keen sportsman in his youth. She imagined her youth and beauty fading. The youth of the nation rapidly abandoned the popular political party when they realized it was unwilling to act in their interest. This publishing sector is no longer in its youth. Police have the three youths in custody on suspicion of vandalism. “Youth cultures are often expressions of resistance stemming from one’s class, ethnicity, and gender location” (Youth Culture, 109). Middle-class youth have romanticized poverty. |
Noun: He was attacked by a gang of youths. “Stop, you unruly youths!” yelled the elderly person at some children who were playing in his yard. Youths are leaders of tomorrow. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: youthful Adverb: youthfully Noun: youthfulness, youthqukte, |
|
| History of the Word: | |
| Old English geoguth is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch jeugd, the German Jugend, also to young. | |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Youth versus Youths
Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.
Apple Dictionary.com
“Youth Culture: Influence of Media and GLobalization.” Unit 5. eGyanKosh. n.d. Accessed 11 Sept 2023. <https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/65362/1/Unit-5.pdf>.
“Youth or Youths – Which is Correct?.” Writing Explained. n.d. Accessed 11 Sept 2023. <https://writingexplained.org/youth-or-youths-correct>.
“Youth vs. Youths.” Langeek.co. n.d. Accessed 11 Sept 2023. <https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/1571/youth-vs-youths#>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Youth of Today at SO36 by Libertinus Yomango was uploaded by Sandstein using the Flickr upload bot. It is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
