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The rose of this kind is called "Princess Diana"

hirashin

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Dear native English speakers,

Would both be correct?
(a) Roses of this kind are called "Princess Diana".
(b) The rose of this kind is called "Princess Diana"

Hirashin
 
(a) is fine. (b) is better with 'A rose of this...'. General statements are usually OK both in the singular or plural.
e.g.., A cat has 4 legs, and Cats have 4 legs are both fine.
 
In formal language, you sometimes use "the + noun" as a general statement. For example, you can say "The horse is a useful animal." or something like that. Is it that you can't use this kind of "the" in (b)?
 
In formal language, you sometimes use "the + noun" as a general statement. For example, you can say "The horse is a useful animal." or something like that. Is it that you can't use this kind of "the" in (b)?

Fair point, and your horse example is fine.
I don't like "the" in your sentence because it is followed by 'of this kind'.
In fact, I Googled "a flower of this kind" and got 9.5 million hits. Then I Googled "the flower of this kind" (the quote marks here are important because they mean that only the exact phrase appears) and only got 5 hits!
I think from that, you can conclude that you should always have 'a' or 'an' before 'of this kind'.
 
Thank you for your time, Lothor. I appreciate your help.
That's new information to me. I'll make a mental note of it.
 
Thank you for your time, Lothor. I appreciate your help.
That's new information to me. I'll make a mental note of it.

hirashin,

Don't just make a mental note of it--write it down and/or print out @Lothor 's reply.

please compare the similar suggestion for using google some weeks ago:
(September 2nd, 2016)

 
Thank you for the suggestion, johnnyG. I often use Google advanced search, but it didn't occur to me that I should google "the flower of this kind".
 
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