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Def n t on
Art cles, determ ners, and quant f ers are those l ttle words that precede
and mod fy nouns:
Determ ners are sa d to "mark" nouns. That s to say, you know a determ ner w ll be
followed by a noun. Some categor es of determ ners are l m ted (there are only three art cles, a
handful of possess ve pronouns, etc.), but the possess ve nouns are as l m tless as nouns
themselves. Th s l m ted nature of most determ ner categor es, however, expla ns why
determ ners are grouped apart from adject ves even though both serve a mod fy ng funct on.
We can mag ne that the language w ll never t re of nvent ng new adject ves; the determ ners
(except for those possess ve nouns), on the other hand, are well establ shed, and th s class of
words s not go ng to grow n number. These categor es of determ ners are as follows: the
art cles (an, a, the see below; possess ve nouns (Joe's, the pr est's, my mother's); possess ve
pronouns, (h s, your, the r, whose, etc.); numbers (one, two, etc.); ndef n te pronouns (few,
more, each, every, e ther, all, both, some, any, etc.); and demonstrat ve pronouns. The
demonstrat ves (th s, that, these, those, such) are d scussed n the sect on on Demonstrat ve
Pronouns. Not ce that the possess ve nouns d ffer from the other determ ners n that they,
themselves, are often accompan ed by other determ ners: "my mother's rug," "the pr ests's
collar," "a dog's l fe."
Th s categor zat on of determ ners s based on Understand ng Engl sh Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Ed t on.
MacM llan Publ sh ng Company: New York. 1994.
d st nct on between Count and Non-Count Nouns. For our purposes, we w ll choose the
count noun trees and the non-count noun danc ng:
The follow ng quant f ers w ll work w th both count and non-count nouns:
all of the trees/danc ng
some trees/danc ng
most of the trees/danc ng
enough trees/danc ng
a lot of trees/danc ng
lots of trees/danc ng
plenty of trees/danc ng
a lack of trees/danc ng
In formal academ c wr t ng, t s usually better to use many and much rather than phrases such
as a lot of, lots of and plenty of.
There s an mportant d fference between "a l ttle" and "l ttle" (used w th non-count
words) and between "a few" and "few" (used w th count words). If I say that Tashonda has a
l ttle exper ence n management that means that although Tashonda s no great expert she does
have some exper ence and that exper ence m ght well be enough for our purposes. If I say that
Tashonda has l ttle exper ence n management that means that she doesn't have enough
exper ence. If I say that Charl e owns a few books on Lat n Amer can l terature that means that
he has some some books not a lot of books, but probably enough for our purposes. If I say
that Charl e owns few books on Lat n Amer can l terature, that means he doesn't have enough
for our purposes and we'd better go to the l brary.
Unless t s comb ned w th of, the quant f er "much" s reserved for quest ons and
negat ve statements:
Note that the quant f er "most of the" must nclude the def n te art cle the when t
mod f es a spec f c noun, whether t's a count or a non-count noun: "most of the nstructors at
th s college have a doctorate"; "most of the water has evaporated." W th a general plural noun,
however (when you are not referr ng to a spec f c ent ty), the "of the" s dropped:
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An ndef n te art cle s somet mes used n conjunct on w th the quant f er many, thus
jo n ng a plural quant f er w th a s ngular noun (wh ch then takes a s ngular verb):
Th s construct on lends tself to a somewhat l terary effect (some would say a stuffy or archa c
effect) and s best used spar ngly, f at all.
Bas c Qu z on Choos ng
Quant f ers
Qu z on Quant f ers
Predeterm ners
The predeterm ners occur pr or to other determ ners (as you would probably guess from
the r name). Th s class of words ncludes mult pl ers (double, tw ce, four/f ve t mes . . . .);
fract onal express ons (one-th rd, three-quarters, etc.); the words both, half, and all; and
ntens f ers such as qu te, rather, and such.
The mult pl ers precede plural count and mass nouns and occur w th s ngular count nouns
denot ng number or amount:
In fract onal express ons, we have a s m lar construct on, but here t can be replaced w th
"of" construct on.
The ntens f ers occur n th s construct on pr mar ly n casual speech and wr t ng and are
more common n Br t sh Engl sh than they are n Amer can Engl sh. The ntens f er "what" s
often found n styl st c fragments: "We v s ted my brother n h s dorm room. What a mess!"
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Half, both, and all can occur w th s ngular and plural count nouns; half and all can occur
w th mass nouns. There are also "of construct ons" w th these words ("all [of] the gra n," "half
[of] h s salary"); the "of construct on" s requ red w th personal pronouns ("both of them," "all
of t"). The follow ng chart (from Qu rk and Greenbaum) n cely descr bes the uses of these
three predeterm ners:
The three art cles a, an, the are a k nd of adject ve. The
s called the def n te art cle because t usually precedes a
spec f c or prev ously ment oned noun; a and an are called
ndef n te art cles because they are used to refer to
someth ng n a less spec f c manner (an unspec f ed count
noun). These words are also l sted among the noun markers
or determ ners because they are almost nvar ably followed
by a noun (or someth ng else act ng as a noun).
The s used w th spec f c nouns. The s requ red when the noun t refers to represents
someth ng that s one of a k nd:
The s requ red when the noun t refers to represents someth ng n the abstract:
The Un ted States has encouraged the use of the pr vate automob le as
opposed to the use of publ c trans t.
The s requ red when the noun t refers to represents someth ng named earl er n the text. (See
below..)
Merr am-Webster's D ct onary says that we can use an before an h- word that beg ns w th
an unstressed syllable. Thus, we m ght say an h sTOR cal moment, but we would say a
HIStory book. Many wr ters would call that an affectat on and prefer that we say a h stor cal,
but apparently, th s cho ce s a matter of personal taste.
For help on us ng art cles w th abbrev at ons and acronyms (a or an FBI agent?), see the
sect on on Abbrev at ons.
F rst and subsequent reference: When we f rst refer to someth ng n wr tten text, we
often use an ndef n te art cle to mod fy t.
A newspaper has an obl gat on to seek out and tell the truth.
There are s tuat ons, however, when the newspaper must determ ne whether
the publ c's safety s jeopard zed by know ng the truth.
Another example:
"I'd l ke a glass of orange ju ce, please," John sa d.
"I put the glass of ju ce on the counter already," She la repl ed.
Except on:
When a mod f er appears between the art cle and the noun, the subsequent art cle w ll cont nue
to be ndef n te:
"I'd l ke a b g glass of orange ju ce, please," John sa d.
"I put a b g glass of ju ce on the counter already," She la repl ed.
The d fference between the gener c ndef n te pronoun and the normal ndef n te pronoun s
that the latter refers to any of that class ("I want to buy a beagle, and any old beagle w ll do.")
whereas the former (see beagle sentence) refers to all members of that class.
Proper nouns: We use the def n te art cle w th certa n k nds of proper nouns:
Geograph cal places: the Sound, the Sea of Japan, the M ss ss pp , the West, the
Smok es, the Sahara (but often not when the ma n part of the proper noun seems to
be mod f ed by an earl er attr but ve noun or adject ve: We went sw mm ng at the
Ocean Park)
Plural zed names (geograph c, fam ly, teams): the Netherlands, the Bahamas, the
Hamptons, the Johnsons, the New England Patr ots
Publ c nst tut ons/fac l t es/groups: the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Sheraton, the
House, the Presbyter an Church
Newspapers: the Hartford Courant, the T mes
Nouns followed by a prepos t onal phrase beg nn ng w th "of": the leader of the
gang, the pres dent of our club
Abstract nouns: Abstract nounsthe names of th ngs that are not tang bleare
somet mes used w th art cles, somet mes not:
The storm upset my peace of m nd. He was m ss ng just one th ng: peace of m nd.
Injust ce was w despread w th n the jud c al system tself. He mplored the judge to
correct the njust ce.
Her body was racked w th gr ef. It was a gr ef he had never felt before.
Zero art cles: Several k nds of nouns never use art cles. We do not use art cles w th the
names of languages ("He was learn ng Ch nese." [But when the word Ch nese refers to the
people, the def n te art cle m ght come nto play: "The Ch nese are hop ng to get the next
Olymp cs."]), the names of sports ("She plays badm nton and basketball."), and academ c
subjects ("She's tak ng econom cs and math. Her major s Rel g ous Stud es.")
When they are gener c, non-count nouns and somet mes plural count-nouns are used
w thout art cles. "We l ke w ne w th our d nner. We adore Baroque mus c. We use roses for
many purposes." But f an "of phrase" comes after the noun, we use an art cle: "We adore the
mus c of the Baroque." Also, when a gener c noun s used w thout an art cle and then referred
to n a subsequent reference, t w ll have become spec f c and w ll requ re a def n te art cle:
"The Data Center nstalled computers n the Learn ng Center th s summer. The computers,
unfortunately, don't work."
Common count nouns are used w thout art cles n certa n spec al s tuat ons:
d omat c
express ons We'll go by tra n. (as opposed to "We'll take the tra n.)
us ng be and He must be n school.
go
w th
He's n church/college/ja l/class.
nst tut ons
Zero art cle (see table below) means e ther that no art cle would be appropr ate w th that k nd
of noun or that that k nd of noun can be used ( n that context) w thout an art cle.
Not ce that there s a d fference between a "stressed" some or any and an "unstressed"
some or any. Cons der the words n ALL CAPS as shouted words and you w ll hear the
d fference between these two:
As opposed to. . .
In terms of the words they usually mod fy, the unstressed some and any do not mod fy s ngular
count nouns.
An excellent text for an n-depth study of art cles s A Un vers ty Grammar of Engl sh by Randolph Qu rk and
S dney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used w th perm ss on. Another good resource,
espec ally for students for whom Engl sh s a second language, s Qu ck Access: Reference for Wr ters by Lynn
Qu tman Troyka. S mon & Schuster: New York. 1995. Used w th perm ss on.
Another place to d scover more about the use of art cles s at Purdue Un vers ty's Onl ne Wr t ng Lab (OWL). See,
also, the Un vers ty of Toronto's Rules for Us ng the Word The and Rensselaer's handout on Art cle Usage. The
onl ne journal for Teachers of Engl sh as a Second Language has several qu zzes on art cle usage. Students should
be forewarned, however, that the best way to address th s problem ( f t s one) s to mmerse oneself n the use of
Engl sh, pay ng part cular attent on to these "l ttle words."
Gu de to Grammar Pr nc ples of
Index
and Wr t ng Compos t on
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