Which qualifier do you prefer here?
I have a conversation with my friend and she says ''People who attended the party were funny''. Is that OK on the assumption that she wants to point out only eighteen of the twenty who was there?

''The people'' would mean all the people were funny.
''Some people'' would mean only a small percentage was funny. Maybe 7 but obviously not 15.

Please notice I don't want to use any other determiner. How do you see quantity when the definite article is omitted with plurals? How ambiguous is it for you? For example here: ''Three decisions that you make every moment of your life control your destiny. ''

Question

Which qualifier do you prefer here?
I have a conversation with my friend and she says ''People who attended the party were funny''. Is that OK on the assumption that she wants to point out only eighteen of the twenty who was there?

''The people'' would mean all the people were funny.
''Some people'' would mean only a small percentage was funny. Maybe 7 but obviously not 15.

Please notice I don't want to use any other determiner. How do you see quantity when the definite article is omitted with plurals? How ambiguous is it for you? For example here: ''Three decisions that you make every moment of your life control your destiny. ''

Answer

People who attended the party were funny. Failing any qualifying context, i would understand that all people present were funny. To say "some of the people" or "many of the people" or "most of the people" would clear this up. I would be inclined to say "Several funny people attended the party." Without a qualifier, "Funny people attended the party",  might allow for the thought that not all were funny, but it would depend on the manner of delivery or context if written.  I would feel some ambiguity without more context. "Funny people attended the party and told jokes that kept the rest of us in stitches" is clear. "People who attended were funny" seems like all were funny or begs a qualifier.      
   The "three decisions" question is unclear to me.

Answer

To write this correctly you would say "the people who..." meaning all the people and actually to specify that there were no exceptions you would write "All the people..."  If that is not the case, you would say " the majority of the people, most of the people, the vast majority, with few exceptions all the people..."  I think the last one is the best.

Answers · 2

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