a former president vs the former president

[Alexey86]

Suppose there is a company named ABC going through a management transition.
Bill is the current president of the company and Mark is the former. Tom is going to replace Bill.

What will you call Mark after Tom takes up the post: the former president or a former president?

 

[Tarheel]

Suppose there is a company named ABC going through a management transition.
Bill is the current president of the company and Mark is the former president. Tom is going to replace Bill.

What would you call Mark after Tom takes up the post: the former president or a former president?

He is a former president. (There are at least two of them.)

 

[emsr2d2]

Suppose there is a company named ABC going through a management transition. Bill is the current president of the company and Mark is the [STRIKE]former[/STRIKE] previous president. Tom is going to replace Bill.

What [STRIKE]will[/STRIKE] would you call Mark after Tom takes up the post: the former president or a former president?

I would use either "a" or no article.

A press announcement was made today by Mark Mawurdz, former president of ABC.
A press announcement was made today by Mark Mawurdz, a former president of ABC.

(I'd probably actually use "ex-president".)

 

[Alexey86]

and Mark is the [STRIKE]former [/STRIKE]previous president.

What's wrong with former? And why is it necessary to repeat the word president after previous?

 

[jutfrank]

A press announcement was made today by Mark Mawurdz, former president of ABC.

Without the article, you ought to capitalise, since you're using an official title.

 

[Alexey86]

What's the difference between a former president and a previous president?

And why is it necessary to repeat the word president after previous?

The answer is obvious: the indefinite article requires a noun after it. I should've thought of that before asking.

 

[emsr2d2]

It depends on the context. How many presidents have there been? If Mark was the first, he'll be the former president.

But three people are named in post #1.

Bill is the current president.
Mark was the president before Bill.
Tom is going to take over from Bill.

Once Tom takes over, there will be two ex-presidents (Bill and Mark). The OP asked how to refer to Mark once Tom becomes president.

 

[Alexey86]

Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter are all former presidents.

Can previous substitute for former?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

But three people are named in post #1.

Bill is the current president.
Mark was the president before Bill.
Tom is going to take over from Bill.

Once Tom takes over, there will be two ex-presidents (Bill and Mark). The OP asked how to refer to Mark once Tom becomes president.

Oh. Never mind. I'm going back to sleep now.

 

[jutfrank]

You can use the previous president when you're talking specifically about the one before now. Otherwise, use former president.

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is that we tend to use former president when talking about presidency as a formal office. That's why we say that Obama and Bush are former presidents. In some sense this official status is carried on into the present—notice that they still are former presidents.

You can use the previous president when the focus is on what came before now. For that reason the verb will very likely be in the past tense:

The previous president caused a lot of harm to the country.
The previous president had the west wing extended.

 

[Alexey86]

You can use the previous president when you're talking specifically about the one before now. Otherwise, use former president.

It seems a previous president is used in the sense of any previous president:

1. President Bush signed an executive order today to allow a sitting president to keep secret the papers of a previous president, even if a previous president wants his papers made public.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/02/us/bush-keeps-a-grip-on-presidential-papers.html

2. On Friday morning, Trump tweeted, “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely.” But, in truth, there is no straightforward military option. If there were one, a previous President might have used it, or, at least, threatened to use it.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john...he-reality-of-a-nuclear-armed-north-korea/amp


But this example is confusing:

3. Caihou rose to prominence under a previous president, Jiang Zemin.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ke...e-pulls-back-the-covers-on-chinese-corruption

 

[GoesStation]

It seems a previous president is used in the sense of any previous president ….

You could say that, yes, but it means what it says: there are many previous presidents; a sitting president can keep the papers of one of them secret.

But this example is confusing:

3. Caihou rose to prominence under a previous president, Jiang Zemin.

There are many previous presidents. Jiang Zemin is one of them. "A" means "one", but the two words aren't usually interchangeable.

 

[Alexey86]

1. President Bush signed an executive order today to allow a sitting president to keep secret the papers of a previous president, even if a previous president wants his papers made public.

Why does the second 'previous president' take 'a'? I mean, doesn't it anaphorically refer to the fist one: ...even if the previous president (= that previous president whose papers were chosen to be kept secret) wants his papers made public?

 

[GoesStation]

Why does the second 'previous president' take 'a'? I mean, doesn't it anaphorically refer to the fist one: ...even if the previous president (= that previous president whose papers was chosen to be kept secret) wants his papers made public?

It should have the definite article.

 

[Alexey86]

It should have the definite article.

Thank you! By the way, I changed was to were after papers right before you replied.