ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRAMMAR - PARTS OF SPEECH

DETERMINERS

FUNCTION AND CLASSES OF DETERMINERS

Function
Determiners are words placed in front of a noun to make it clear what the
noun refers to. The word 'people' by itself is a general reference to some
group of human beings. If someone says 'these people', we know which group
they are talking about, and if they say 'a lot of people' we know how big the
group is.

Classes of Determiners
There are several classes of determiners:

Definite and Indefinite articles
the, a, an

Demonstratives
this, that, these, those

Possessives
my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Quantifiers
a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough, etc.

Numbers
one, ten, thirty, etc.

Distributives
all, both, half, either, neither, each, every

Difference words
other, another

Question words
Which, what, whose

Defining words
which, whose

The following words are pre-determiners. They go before determiners, such
as articles: such and what, half, rather, quite


DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES
THE, A, AN
Definite article: THE
Indefinite article: A/AN
Exceptions to using the definite article

DEFINITE ARTICLE
THE

Articles in English are invariable. That is, they do not change according to
the gender or number of the noun they refer to, e.g. the boy, the woman,
the children

'The' is used:

1. to refer to something which has already been mentioned.

       Example: An elephant and a mouse fell in love.
       The mouse loved the elephant's long trunk,
       and the elephant loved the mouse's tiny nose.

2. when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even
if it has not been mentioned before.

       Example: 'Where's the bathroom?'
       'It's on the first floor.'

3. in sentences or clauses where we define or identify a particular person or
object:

       Examples: The man who wrote this book is famous.
       'Which car did you scratch?' 'The red one.
       My house is the one with a blue door.'

4. to refer to objects we regard as unique:

       Examples: the sun, the moon, the world

5. before superlatives and ordinal numbers: (see Adjectives)

       Examples: the highest building, the first page, the last
       chapter.

6. with adjectives, to refer to a whole group of people:

       Examples: the Japanese (see Nouns - Nationalities), the old

7. with names of geographical areas and oceans:

       Examples: the Caribbean, the Sahara, the Atlantic

8. with decades, or groups of years:

       Example: she grew up in the seventies


INDEFINITE ARTICLE
A / AN

Use 'a' with nouns starting with a consonant (letters that are not vowels),
'an' with nouns starting with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u)

Examples:

                 A boy
                 An apple
                 A car
                 An orange
                 A house
                 An opera

NOTE:
An before an h mute - an hour, an honour.
A before u and eu when they sound like 'you': a european, a university, a
unit

The indefinite article is used:

• to refer to something for the first time:
         An elephant and a mouse fell in love.
         Would you like a drink?
         I've finally got a good job.
• to refer to a particular member of a group or class

Examples:

• with names of jobs:
John is a doctor.
Mary is training to be an engineer.
He wants to be a dancer.

• with nationalities and religions:
John is an Englishman.
Kate is a Catholic.

• with musical instruments:
Sherlock Holmes was playing a violin when the visitor arrived.
(BUT to describe the activity we say "He plays the violin.")

• with names of days:
 I was born on a Thursday

• to refer to a kind of, or example of something:
the mouse had a tiny nose
the elephant had a long trunk
it was a very strange car

• with singular nouns, after the words 'what' and 'such':
What a shame!
She's such a beautiful girl.

• meaning 'one', referring to a single object or person:
I'd like an orange and two lemons please.
The burglar took a diamond necklace and a valuable painting.

Notice also that we usually say a hundred, a thousand, a million.

NOTE: that we use 'one' to add emphasis or to contrast with other numbers:
I don't know one person who likes eating elephant meat.
We've got six computers but only one printer.

EXCEPTIONS TO USING THE DEFINITE ARTICLE
There is no article:

• with names of countries (if singular)
         Germany is an important economic power.
         He's just returned from Zimbabwe.
         (But: I'm visiting the United States next week.)

• with the names of languages
         French is spoken in Tahiti.
         English uses many words of Latin origin.
         Indonesian is a relatively new language.

• with the names of meals.
         Lunch is at midday.
         Dinner is in the evening.
         Breakfast is the first meal of the day.

• with people's names (if singular):
         John's coming to the party.
         George King is my uncle.
         (But: we're having lunch with the Morgans tomorrow.)

• with titles and names:
         Prince Charles is Queen Elizabeth's son.
         President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
         Dr. Watson was Sherlock Holmes' friend.
         (But: the Queen of England, the Pope.)

• After the 's possessive case:
         His brother's car.
         Peter's house.

• with professions:
         Engineering is a useful career.
         He'll probably go into medicine.

• with names of shops:
         I'll get the card at Smith's.
         Can you go to Boots for me?

• with years:
         1948 was a wonderful year.
         Do you remember 1995?

• With uncountable nouns:
         Rice is the main food in Asia.
         Milk is often added to tea in England.
         War is destructive.

• with the names of individual mountains, lakes and islands:
         Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in Alaska.
         She lives near Lake Windermere.
         Have you visited Long Island?

• with most names of towns, streets, stations and airports:
              Victoria Station is in the centre of London.
              Can you direct me to Bond Street?
              She lives in Florence.
              They're flying from Heathrow.

• in some fixed expressions, for example:
by car                               at school
by train                             at work
by air                               at University
on foot                              in church
on holiday                           in prison
on air (in                           in bed
broadcasting)

THE DEMONSTRATIVES

THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE
1. Function
The demonstratives this, that, these, those ,show where an object or
person is in relation to the speaker.
This (singular) and these (plural) refer to an object or person near the
speaker. That (singular) and those (plural) refer to an object or person
further away. It can be a physical closeness or distance as in:

 Who owns that house? (distant)
 Is this John's house? (near)

Or it can be a psychological distance as in:

 That's nothing to do with me.. (distant)
 This is a nice surprise! (near)

2. Position

 a) Before the noun.
 b) Before the word 'one'.
 c) Before an adjective + noun.
 d) Alone when the noun is 'understood'.

Examples:

This car looks cleaner than that one.
This old world keeps turning round
Do you remember that wonderful day in June?
I'll never forget this.

THE POSSESSIVES
Possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives show who the thing belongs to.

     PERSON                         ADJECTIVES         PRONOUNS
     1st             (I)            my                 mine
     2nd             (you)          your               yours
     3rd             (he)           his                his
                     (she)          her                hers
                     (it)           it                 its

     Plural

     1st             (we)           our                ours
     2nd             (you)          your               yours
     3rd             (they)         their              theirs

NOTE: In English, possessive adjectives and pronouns refer to the possessor,
not the object or person that is possessed.

Example:

  Jane's brother is married to John's sister.
  Her brother is married to his sister.

Examples:

  a. Peter and his sister.
  b. Jane and her father.
  c. Do you know where your books are?
  d. Is this their picnic? No, it is ours.
  e. I think this is your passport. Yes, it is mine.

THE QUANTIFIERS
Quantifiers are adjectives and adjectival phrases that give approximate
answers to the questions "How much?" and "How many?"

Example:

  I've got a little money.
  I've got a lot of friends.

• Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

• A few and few, a little and little

• Some and any

• Compound nouns made with SOME, ANY and NO

• Graded Quantifiers

• Enough + Noun

THE QUANTIFIERS
Quantifiers with countable
and uncountable nouns

Adjectives and adjectival phrases that describe quantity are shown below.
Some can only go with countable nouns (friends, cups, people), and some
can only go with uncountable nouns (sugar, tea, money, advice). The words
in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable
nouns.

Only with                   With uncountable              Only with
uncountable nouns           and countable nouns           countable nouns
How much?                                                   How many?
                              How much? or How many?
a little                      no/none                       a few
a bit (of)                    not any                       a number (of)
-                             some (any)                    several
a great deal of               a lot of                      a large number of

a large amount of             plenty of                     a great number of

-                             lots of                       -

                                           + noun

Note: much and many are used in negative and question forms.

Example:

• How much money have you got?

• How many cigarettes have you smoked?

• There's not much sugar in the cupboard.

• There weren't many people at the concert.

They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as :There were too many
people at the concert - we couldn't see the band.
It's a problem when there are so many people.
There's not so much work to do this week.

In positive statements, we use a lot of:

• I've got a lot of work this week.

• There were a lot of people at the concert.

THE QUANTIFIERS
A few and few, a little and little

These expressions show the speaker's attitude towards the quantity he/she is
referring to.

A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns) describe
the quantity in a positive way:

• "I've got a few friends" (= maybe not many, but enough)

• "I've got a little money" (= I've got enough to live on)

Few and little describe the quantity in a negative way:

• Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no visitors)

• He had little money (= almost no money)

THE QUANTIFIERS
Some and Any

Some and any are used with countable and uncountable nouns, to describe
an indefinite or incomplete quantity.

Some is used in positive statements:

• I had some rice for lunch

• He's got some books from the library.

It is also used in questions where we are sure about the answer:

• Did he give you some tea? (= I'm sure he did.)

• Is there some fruit juice in the fridge? (= I think there is)

Some is used in situations where the question is not a request for
information, but a method of making a request, encouraging or giving an
invitation:

• Could I have some books, please?

• Why don't you take some books home with you?

• Would you like some books?

Any is used in questions and with not in negative statements:

• Have you got any tea?

• He didn't give me any tea.

• I don't think we've got any coffee left.

More examples:

SOME in positive sentences.
a. I will have some news next week.
b. She has some valuable books in her house.
c. Philip wants some help with his exams.
d. There is some butter in the fridge.
e. We need some cheese if we want to make a fondue.

SOME in questions:
a. Would you like some help?
b. Will you have some more roast beef?

ANY in negative sentences
a. She doesn't want any kitchen appliances for Christmas.
b. They don't want any help moving to their new house.
c. No, thank you. I don't want any more cake.
d. There isn't any reason to complain.

ANY in interrogative sentences
a. Do you have any friends in London?
b. Have they got any children?
c. Do you want any groceries from the shop?
d. Are there any problems with your work?

THE QUANTIFIERS
Compound nouns made with SOME, ANY and NO

Some +
Any +               -thing        -body         -one     -where
No +

Compound nouns with some- and any- are used in the same way as some and
any.

Positive statements:

• Someone is sleeping in my bed.

• He saw something in the garden.

• I left my glasses somewhere in the house.

Questions:

• Are you looking for someone? (= I'm sure you are)

• Have you lost something? (= I'm sure you have)

• Is there anything to eat? (real question)

• Did you go anywhere last night?

Negative statements:

• She didn't go anywhere last night.

• He doesn't know anybody here.

NOTICE that there is a difference in emphasis between nothing, nobody etc.
and not ... anything, not ... anybody:

• I don't know anything about it. (= neutral, no emphasis)

• I know nothing about it (= more emphatic, maybe defensive)

More examples:

SOMETHING, SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE
a. I have something to tell you.
b. There is something to drink in the fridge.
c. He knows somebody in New York
d. Susie has somebody staying with her.
e. They want to go somewhere hot for their holidays.
f. Keith is looking for somewhere to live.

ANYBODY, ANYTHING, ANYWHERE
a. Is there anybody who speaks English here?
b. Does anybody have the time?
c. Is there anything to eat?
d. Have you anything to say?
e. He doesn't have anything to stay tonight.
f. I wouldn't eat anything except at Maxim's.

NOBODY, NOTHING, NOWHERE
a. There is nobody in the house at the moment
b. When I arrived there was nobody to meet me.
c. I have learnt nothing since I began the course.
d. There is nothing to eat.
e. There is nowhere as beautiful as Paris in the Spring.
f. Homeless people have nowhere to go at night.

ANY can also be used in positive statements to mean 'no matter which', 'no
matter who', 'no matter what':

Examples:

a. You can borrow any of my books.
b. They can choose anything from the menu.
c. You may invite anybody to dinner, I don't mind.

THE QUANTIFIERS
Graded Quantifiers

They function like comparatives and hold a relative
position on a scale of increase or decrease.

INCREASE From 0% to 100%

     With plural countable nouns:
     many             more             most
     
     With uncountable nouns:
     much             more             most

DECREASE From 100% to 0%

     With plural countable nouns:
     few              fewer            fewest

     With uncountable nouns:
     little           less             least

Examples:
  
• There are many people in England, more in India,
  but the most people live in China.
               
• Much time and money is spent on education, more
  on health services but the most is spent on
  national defence.
               
• Few rivers in Europe are not polluted.

• Fewer people die young now than in the
  seventeenth century.
               
• The country with the fewest people per square
  kilometre must be Australia.
               
• Scientists have little hope of finding a complete
  cure for cancer before the year 2,000.
               
• She had less time to study than Paul but had better
  results.
               
• Give that dog the least opportunity and it will bite you.

THE QUANTIFIERS
NUMBERS
The cardinal numbers (one, two, three, etc.) are adjectives referring to
quantity, and the ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) refer to
distribution.

Number      Ordinal                   Cardinal
1           one                       first
2           two                       second
3           three                     third
4           four                      fourth
5           five                      fifth
6           six                       sixth
7           seven                     seventh
8           eight                     eighth
9           nine                      ninth
10          ten                       tenth
11          eleven                    eleventh
12          twelve                    twelfth
13          thirteen                  thirteenth
14          fourteen                  fourteenth
15          fifteen                   fifteenth
16          sixteen                   sixteenth
17          seventeen                 seventeenth
18          eighteen                  eighteenth
19          nineteen                  nineteenth
20          twenty                    twentieth
21          twenty-one                twenty-first
22          twenty-two                twenty-second
23          twenty-three              twenty-third
24          twenty-four               twenty-fourth
25          twenty-five               twenty-fifth
26          twenty-six                twenty-sixth
27          twenty-seven              twenty-seventh
28          twenty-eight              twenty-eighth
29          twenty-nine               twenty-ninth
30          thirty                    thirtieth
31          thirty-one                thirty-first
40          forty                     fortieth
50          fifty                     fiftieth
60          sixty                     sixtieth
70          seventy                   seventieth
80          eighty                    eightieth
90          ninety                    ninetieth
100         one hundred               hundredth
500         five hundred              five hundredth
1,000       one thousand              thousandth
100,000     one hundred thousand      hundred thousandth
            one million               millionth
1,000,000

Examples:

• There are twenty-five people in the room.

• He was the fourteenth person to win the award since 1934.

• Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.

• I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.

• He went to Israel for the third time this year.

Fractions and Decimals
Said                     Written           Said
half                     0.5               point five
a quarter                0.25              point two five
three quarters           0.75              point seven five

Percentages
Written                         Said
25%                             twenty five percent
50%                             fifty percent
75%                             seventy five percent
100%                            a/one hundred percent


Units
Written                         Said
$1,200                          one thousand two hundred
                                dollars
£16,486                         sixteen thousand four hundred
                                and eighty-six pounds
545kms                          five hundred and forty-five
                                kilometres
$25.35                          twenty-five dollars thirty-five


Years
Written                         Said
1988                            Nineteen eighty-eight
1864                            Eighteen sixty-four
1999                            Nineteen ninety-nine


How to say '0'
nought             used in mathematical expressions and
                   decimals:
                   'nought times three equals nought'
                   0.3 = 'nought point three' (or 'point three')
                   0.03 = 'point nought three'
     zero               used in scientific expressions, especially
                        temperatures:
                        20oC = minus twenty degrees or
                        twenty degrees below zero

                        also used to mean 'the lowest point':
                        'The heavy rain reduced visibility to zero'
     'o' (the letter) used in telephone numbers:
                      0171 390 0062 = 'o one seven one three
                      nine o double o six two'
     nil/nothing        used to express the score in games such
                        as football:
                        2 - 0 = 'two nil' or 'two nothing'

THE QUANTIFIERS
Enough + Noun

Enough is placed before the noun, to indicate the quantity required or
necessary:

• There is enough bread for lunch.

• She has enough money.

Enough is also used with adjectives and adverbs - see these sections.

• We didn't have enough time to visit London Bridge.

• Are there enough eggs to make an omelette?

• Richard has enough talent to become a singing star.

THE DISTRIBUTIVES
ALL, BOTH, HALF
EACH, EVERY, EITHER, NEITHER

These words refer to a group of people or things, and to individual members of the
group. They show different ways of looking at the individuals within a group, and
they express how something is distributed, shared or divided.

THE DISTRIBUTIVES
ALL, BOTH, HALF
These words can be used in the following ways:

          1     -                       Uncountable noun

          2     the                     or

ALL +     3     my, your, etc.          Countable noun in the plural

          4a    this, that              Uncountable noun

          4b    these, those            Countable noun in the plural

Example:
1.     All cheese contains protein
       All children need affection
2.     All the people in the room were silent.
       Have you eaten all the bread?
3.     I've invited all my friends to the party.
       I've been waiting all my life for this opportunity.
4a.    Who's left all this paper on my desk?
4b.    Look at all those balloons!

             1-

                                       Countable noun in the plural
             2 the
BOTH +
             3 my, your, etc.

             4 these, those

Example:
1.     Both children were born in Italy.
2.     He has crashed both (of) the cars.
3.     Both (of) my parents have fair hair.
4      You can take both (of) these books back to the
       library.
       
       See note below
                 1        a                        Uncountable

                 2        the                      or

HALF +           3        my, your, etc.           countable noun

                 4        this, that,
                          these, those

 Example:
 1.  I bought half a kilo of apples yesterday.
 2.  You can have half (of) the cake.
     She gave me half (of) the apples.
 3.  I've already given you half (of) my money.
     Half (of) his books were in French.
 4   Half (of) these snakes are harmless
     You can take half (of) this sugar.

NOTE: All, both, half + OF: 'OF' must be added when followed by a pronoun:

All of you; both of us; half of them
It is also quite common to add it in most of the above situations except when
there is no article (No.1 in all the tables above.)

THE DISTRIBUTIVES
EACH, EVERY, EITHER, NEITHER
These distributive words are normally used with singular nouns, and are
placed before the noun.

Each, either and neither can be used with plural nouns but must be
followed by 'of':

Each is a way of seeing the members of a group as individuals:

• Each child received a present.

• Each of the children received a present.

Every is a way of seeing a group as a series of members:

• Every child in the world deserves affection.

It can also express different points in a series, especially with time
expressions:

• Every third morning John goes jogging.

• This magazine is published every other week.

Either and Neither are concerned with distribution between two things -
either is positive, neither is negative:

• Which chair do you want? Either chair will do.

• I can stay at either hotel, they are both good

• There are two chairs here. You can take either of them.

• Neither chair is any good, they're both too small.

• Which chair do you want? Neither of them - they're both too small.

DIFFERENCE WORDS
OTHER, ANOTHER
These words refer to something different, remaining, or additional.

They are placed before the noun.

Another is used with singular nouns, other with singular or plural.

• There are other jobs you could try.

• Where's the other packet of cereals?

• Is there any other bread?

• Have another cup of tea.

QUESTION WORDS
WHICH, WHAT, WHOSE
In questions, these words ask which thing or person is being referred to. They
are placed before the noun.

• Which dress are you going to wear tonight?

• What colour is your dress?

• Whose car are you going to use?

DEFINING WORDS
WHICH AND WHOSE
In a statement, these words define or explain which thing or person is
referred to:

Example:

• He went back to the house. (Which house?) The house which stood on
  the corner. = He went back to the house which stood on the corner.

• I saw the man. (Which man?) The man whose car you damaged. = I
  saw the man whose car you damaged.

More examples:

• He couldn't remember which film he had seen.

• That's the man whose wife works in my office.

• Tell me which coffee you like.

• The woman whose dog bit you is at the door.

PRE-DETERMINERS
SUCH, WHAT, RATHER, QUITE
These words are normally placed before the indefinite article.
Such and what are often used to express surprise or other emotions:

Examples:

a. What a lovely day!
b. She's such a lovely woman!
c. What an incredible film!
d. He's such a fantastic guitarist!

Rather and quite are 'commenting' words, referring to the degree of a
particular quality. They can express disappointment, pleasure, or other
emotions, and are used before a/an + adjective + noun:

Examples:

a. It's rather a small car. (= I'm a bit disappointed because it's small)
b. It was quite a nice day.(= I was agreeably surprised.)
c. He's had quite a bad accident. (= I'm worried)
d. I've just met rather a nice man. (= I'm pleased)