Tikrit University Department of English Third Year / Grammar Asst. Lect. Sara Muayad Sultan

(4.5) Determiners in English

English determiners include the following:

● Definite article: the

● Indefinite articles: a, an

● Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

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

● Quantifiers: a few, a little, a lot, much, many, most, some, any, enough

● Numbers: one, two, three, first , second, third

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(4.7) Predeterminers

A predeterminer is a word used before a noun to give more information about a noun in a noun phrase. Predeterminers are like:

(all, both, half, double, twice, once, three/four …. times)

Ex: I love all these children. Ex: I usually visit my relatives once a month.

● (All, both, half) can occur only before (articles: a, an, the) or (demonstratives: this, that, those, these). Ex: I have finished reading (a, this, that, my, the) book.

● (All, both, and half) have (of- construction) which are optional with nouns and obligatory with personal pronouns:

Ex: all (of) the meat. ------all of it. both (of) the students. ------both of them. half (of) the time. ------half of it.

● All and both (but not half) can occur after the head (the subject), either immediately or within the predication:

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Ex: The students } { all } passed their exams. They } { both} Ex: The students were all hungry. Ex: They may have all finished.

● Note: The predeterminer both and the determiners (either and neither) are ‘dual’; they can refer only to two. Compared with the numeral two, both is emphatic:

Ex: Both (the) } students were excellent. The two }

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