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[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I have a quick question about the word "молодежь" - lingvo.yandex.ru gives the definition as "youth, young people". Does this mean that it's only a collective noun referring to youth as a whole, or can it also be applied to a single youth, like the English word "youth" can be?

Comments

[klop.livejournal.com]

It could be applied to a single person ironically.
Привет, молодежь! Hello young man!

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I love this community. Y'all are so fast. Anyway, thank you for your answer - I used it to refer to a single young man in a test essay, and was worrying that I used it wrong. =)

[nemica.livejournal.com]

I have to say, we don't usually use the word this way. Only ironically as klop mentioned.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

It was a fairly ironic reference, so I think it's okay. I would have used some more generic word like человек otherwise. =) But I'll see for sure when my professor looks over it.

[klop.livejournal.com]

I must say that this form of address is inherent to senior people and sound a little bit old-fashioned )).