Who owns most/the most hotels in The US?

[thehammer]

Hello there, what is the difference between most and the most?

1- Who owns the most hotels in The US?
1a- Who owns most hotels in The US?

Now If I answer in the following way the most sounds unnatural?

2- (The) most hotels in The US are owned by Xyz.

If I say the following, they mean different.

2a- Xyz owns the most hotels in The US.
2b- Xyz owns most hotels in The US.

And here is another set of examples:

3- Who scored (the) most ODI runs in cricket.

 

[Tarheel]

1a- Who owns the most hotels in The US?
1b- Who owns most hotels in The US?

I suppose you could use the second one, but the first is definitely more natural.

 

[jutfrank]

Hello there, what is the difference between most and the most?

When they come before nouns, it's a difference in meaning.

1- Who owns the most hotels in The US?

This is asking who owns the highest number of hotels.

1a- Who owns most hotels in The US?

This is asking who owns the majority of hotels.

 

[emsr2d2]

Can an AmE speaker confirm my suspicion that "the" shouldn't be capitalised before "US", "USA" or "United States [of America]"?

 

[jutfrank]

Can an AmE speaker confirm my suspicion that "the" shouldn't be capitalised before "US", "USA" or "United States [of America]"?

No, it shouldn't. Definite articles before names of sovereign states are not really part of the name as such, but rather necessary grammatical devices we use to refer to them. The name of the sovereign state is just United States. It's the same with United Kingdom, Philippines, Marshall Islands, etc.

And this doesn't apply only to sovereign states—it applies generally to any name that has as its head what is normally used as a common noun. Another example:

I work for the Bank of England.
I work for The Bank of England.

Like 'states', the word 'bank' is normally a common noun.

(American speakers alone don't make up these rules of usage, or understand them any better than anyone else. )

 

[Tarheel]

Can an AmE speaker confirm my suspicion that "the" shouldn't be capitalised before "US", "USA" or "United States [of America]"?

I don't get to speak for the whole country very often, so even though Jutfrank has already answered this one I will say "the" is never capitalized in those cases.

 

[Barque]

2- (The) most hotels in The US are owned by Xyz.

With "the" at the head, the structure sounds unnatural, and as Jutfrank says, the use or omission of "the" changes the meaning.

Most hotels in the US are owned by XYZ. (XYZ owns more than half the hotels in the US.)
XYZ owns the most hotels in the US. (XYZ owns more hotels in the US than anyone else. They/it may not own more than half the country's hotels, however.)

3- Who scored (the) most ODI runs in cricket.

Who has scored the most runs in ODI cricket?
Who has scored the most runs in ODIs in cricket?

You need the "has" because ODIs continue to be played. If you were asking about a particular match, you could use "Who scored".
(For non-cricket followers, "ODI" stands for "One Day International" and is one of the forms of international matches.)

Please note the punctuation corrections below.

Hello there, what is the difference between most and the most?

... what is the difference between "most" and "the most"?

Now If I answer in the following way the most sounds unnatural?

Now if If I answer in the following way, does "the most" sound sounds unnatural?

If I say the following, they mean different.

Are you asking a question or making a statement?
Question: Do the following sentences mean different things? Do the following sentences have different meanings?
Statement: The following sentences mean different things. The following sentences have different meanings.