the average person vs an average person

Both 'the average person' and 'an average person' are correct, but they are used in slightly different contexts. 'The average person' is used when referring to a specific average within a group, while 'an average person' is used when talking about a hypothetical or typical person.

Last updated: March 31, 2024 • 1257 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

"the average person"

This phrase is used when referring to a specific average within a group. It implies a known or calculated average that represents a group of people.

Examples:

The average person consumes around 2 liters of water per day.
The average person spends about 8 hours sleeping each night.

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and astonishingly, if you look at what actually happened in my lifetime, the average per-capita income of the average person on the planet, in real terms, adjusted for inflation, has tripled.
Today, the average person will say 17,520 words to 7.4 other individuals.
The average person, so Karin Junker tells me, watches 206 minutes' television a day and listens to the radio for 3.5 hours.
The fate of the average person in the underworld is just to have to wander around a grey shade and live a not very exciting or interesting life.
The average person touches their face about 18 times every waking hour.
But the average person wouldn't realize it.
For the average person, the body precedes language.
Not one of them includes communicating with the average person on the street.
I suppose I know as many as the average person.
Statistically speaking, the average person tells three lies per ten minutes' conversation.
Your metabolism burns four times faster than the average person.
It's very tempting to assume that Whale identified with an individual who is an outsider like this, that the average person does not understand.
You might think the average person going 14 wouldn't know her own mind.
There is no reason why the average person can't live to be 100,150 years old.
Which is fantastic if I'm trying to find out how many Advil the average person should be taking - two.
And I think that this is what really distinguishes extraordinary altruists from the average person.
This is a moment in history when the average person has more power than at any time.
And the average person in Malawi emits about 80 kg of CO2 a year.
But we all need each other 1/3 less than the average person in a prehistoric couple.
We've come to know them in ways that the average person will never understand.

Alternatives:

the typical person
the mean person
the median person
the mode person
the standard person

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

"an average person"

This phrase is used when talking about a hypothetical or typical person. It refers to a person who is considered to be within the norm or average of a group.

Examples:

An average person may not be able to run a marathon without training.
An average person spends a significant amount of time on social media each day.

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And his total lung capacity is twice the size of an average person.
When an average person sends a message in a bottle, it's just a childish fantasy. When Christopher Columbus sends a message in a bottle, the fate of an entire country is at stake.
Because an average person can move twenty-one feet in one-point-five seconds.
My sense of smell is only about 1/100 of an average person.
I think I have everything an average person should have
An average person consumes approximately 3 kg of the roughly 2600 different additives with E numbers each year, without being clear about their harmful effects.
Just more than an average person might use.
I do not qualify as an average person.
She took approximately 7 minutes, about the same amount of time it takes for an average person to fall asleep.
in which we critique the life of an average person just like you.

Alternatives:

a typical person
a median person
a mean person
a standard person
a mode person

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the average person vs an average person

"the average person"

"an average person"

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