Questions tagged [determiners]
A 'determiner' is one of a fixed class of words placed before a noun phrase to indicate its definiteness, quantity, or degree.
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How do you say 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 in words?
One of the answers in a reading exercise in my class today was:
100,000,000,000,000,000,000
... which was the value of the highest denomination note ever issued. It was a 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 ...
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"I hate red color" or "I hate red": why exactly is the first option ungrammatical
If a person wants to say that the most hated color for him is red (in general, no specific hues implied), could he say:
I hate red color.
I've found very little results for this sentence at ...
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"One of THOSE days" vs "one of THESE days"
I don't know exactly when we'll go but we really must visit them one
of these / one of those days.
When should we use "one of these days" and "one of those days"?
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She does homework every day vs She does her homework every day vs She does the homework every day
Can I use the first example?
She does homework every day
She does her homework every day
She does the homework every day
Or is the object her required?
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"the wife" instead of "my wife", are there any other contexts where a possessive pronoun gets replaced by a definite article?
In English, one occasionally sees a replacement of my wife by the wife, such as in this sentence:
there was a sudden thud and I joked to the wife that someone had run into us
Does this ...
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Is there a rule that prohibits us from using 2 possessives in a row?
An English teacher made a comment on my usage of the phrase, "Our last week's meeting", saying that it should be, "last week's meeting", is there a rule for this?
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Can "either" be used for more than two items?
The Judiciary also uses a special type of monitoring through the General Inspection Office and Bureaucratic Justice Court. Additionally, either of the three powers have internal supervision mechanisms....
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When is 'what' used for living beings?
I have seen phrases like
'What judge?'
and
'What prisoners?'
But I feel that 'which' is a more appropriate pronoun for living things.Why not 'which' has been used there?
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Is the use of "one of the" correct in the following context?
I want to know what the constraints are on using the phrase one of the.
Is it used correctly in this example?
He is one of the soldiers who fight for their country.
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Why is there no article after "no" in "I have no car"
Examples. "I have no car", "I have no TV". BUT "I have not a car"
There was a thread on it, but the answers were pretty superficial to say the least and only based on someone's opinion. I read a ...
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When to use "some" instead of "a"
You were just having some dream.
and
You were just having a dream.
Are both correct? What is the difference, if any?
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(The) Putin's ratings shot up. Is the definite article allowed here?
In a sentence where the definite article precedes someone's name, as in this example:
The war campaign has boosted the Putin's ratings.
could the definite article be used?
Would the above example ...
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Is it grammatically correct to say or to write "some brain"?
In oral speech or writing, it is grammatically correct to say "let's eat some brain"? Could you please give me some example of a more correct form of this kind of expression?
Edit
Thank you for ...
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"The" vs "that"
I understand that "the" and "that" are both used to refer to a specific subject or object. But are there general rules of thumb to explain when we should use "the" and when we should use "that"?
...
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How do I know when to use "the" versus "a" versus "∅" as an article on a noun?
With proper nouns, we don't use the except for river names, newspaper names, etc.
I want to know why we use the with White House. I mean, under which rule can we categorize it? What could other ...
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psychologist John Hayes (THE, zero article before false titles)
An example (from The New Yorker) of a phrase with a false title (psychologist John Hayes):
After Simon and Chase’s paper, for example, the psychologist John
Hayes looked at seventy-six famous ...
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Can "few" be used as a subject? If so, what is the rule?
I took a test with the following question:
__________has changed at work since the last employee survey was carried out.
a. Little
b. Some
c. Few.
Now, I know that the correct answer is ...
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22% of (the/all) Americans: using articles and determiners after percentages
After a percentage do we use of or of the?
For example:
22% of Americans want Bruce Springsteen to write a new National Anthem.
or
22% of the Americans want Bruce Springsteen to write a new ...
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Can I say "This your pen is beautiful"?
I knew sentences like "Is this your pen?", "This pen is yours", "Your pen is beautiful", but I don't see sentences like "This your pen is beautiful". Can I say that?
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an estimated 2 million people are/is
I can not explain why "an" is used in the phrase "an estimated 2 million people are".
In addition, I can find many examples in which such phrases are treated as plural although the noun phrase takes ...
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Is "How much underwear?" okay?
Is this correct? I often see "how many pairs of underwear", but this doesn't make sense. How is underwear a pair? There is only 1. I've googled and I've seen both "how much underwear" and "how many ...
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"A my friend", "A friend mine"
Why do I need to place the preposition "of" before the possessive pronoun "mine" in this sentence?
A friend of mine.
What would happen if I didn't place it like in the sentence "a friend mine". Is ...
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"Some" and "Any"; countables and uncountable
I'm doing my English homework and my book says these sentences are correct:
1) Do you have any wine?
2) Can I have some water, please?
My questions are:
These sentences are structured differently. ...
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Are we to use any with plurals or singulars?
Does he have any cars that are black in color?
Does he have any car that is black in color?
Are both the sentences grammatically correct?
Are there any differences in their meaning?
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Can we say 'she got out of her/the bed’ with a determiner?
Bed is being used as both the countable and uncountable meaning as in
Simon lay in bed thinking.
She got into bed and turned out the light.
(source: Longman)
I wonder whether this she ...
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When can we omit the preposition "of" in such cases?
I'm struggling to understand when we can omit the preposition "of" in cases when we use determiners in English (distributives and quantifiers).
I mean we all know that both "half the students were ...
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When to use an article before "reason"
Please help me to understand when should I use an article before reason and when I should not use any article before reason.
Examples:
(A) I have reason to do this.
(B) I have a good reason ...
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Can "using" be also a preposition?
"using" is basically a verb in the progressive aspect. Does it serve as a preposition, too?
I can sometimes choose between which and that in a relative clause construction. But in a sentence such as "...
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"Look at the pictures" or "Look at these pictures"?
One exercise in my English Grammar book asks to describe the picture, as shown in the following picture:
Since "pictures" are plural, I think it would be better to use "these" ...
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Problem regarding the use of determiners in the English language
Which one of the following sentences is grammatically sound:
There is still little milk in the glass.
There is still a little milk in the glass.
There is still some milk in the glass.
?
My opinion ...
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"This book and this pen" or "This book and pen"?
How do we use the determiner "this" if we want to identify more than one thing close at hand?
Should the determiner be used for both nouns or just with the first one? For example
This waterfall ...
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These kind of/ this kind of/those kind of
Which one is the most suitable option for the following sentence and why?
I do not like these kind of novels.
This kind
Those kind
This kinds
None of the above
Please let me know the grammatical ...
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Can "another" be preceded by "what" as in "What another factor will affect the rollout of the product?"
I've recently seen this question in an English textbook.
(One of the only two factors is........) What another factor will affect the rollout of the product?
This struck me as awkwardly sounding ...
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When can we use 'much' in affirmative clauses?
I found the below in Cambridge Dictionary web-site:
We use much in questions and negative clauses to talk about degrees of something.
We don’t use much in affirmative clauses.
Also, it the ...
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How can I point to the one shoe of my father's shoes?
Is it correct to say:
My father's shoe
I want to point to the one shoe of that pair of my father's shoes.
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Should the noun be in singular or plural form after "some"?
I usually use the plural form after "some."
Example:
I bought some books about France
But I would also say some source states that France is best toured in fall.
Is there a specific grammar ...
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One of the best gift / gifts in my life is love
One of the best gift / gifts in my life is love.
When I indicate a single thing (love) as best, after "One of the best" would it be gift or gifts?
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time expression + has/have
1
After ten years has passed you can apply for possession of the land.
Ten years have passed - ten long, lonely years - since Bill died at sea.
I wonder why is there has in first sentence?. I know ...
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"Never attribute to malice THAT WHICH is adequately explained by stupidity"
The following sentence is part of a famous saying called Hanlon's razor:
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
I'm confused by the "that which". Why do you need ...
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A tricky "you" vs "your" vs "yours" when using conjunctions!
Which one is correct?
You need you and your partner's documents.
You need your and your partner's documents.
Also, am I safe to assume that the following version is certainly wrong?
...
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Use of "the" and cardinals
I've read that no article is used before cardinals (one, two, three... etc) but ordinals, but here in the following sentence this rule is voided. What is the reason behind it?
The cities show an ...
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Must I use "my" when referring to my own bodypart or can I use "the" without technically breaking any rules?
I'm currently trying to understand if the following sentence breaks any rules:
I grab this hair band first thing in the morning to make sure that I don't have my hair on the forehead and nothing is ...
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"We have a game today" vs. "We have the game today"
When I tell people about the football/baseball/soccer/basketball game they are supposed to have today, I say
We have a game today.
which I think is strange. It is strange that it sounds idiomatic ...
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Some words starting with vowels, preceded by 'an' instead or 'a' [duplicate]
We've all been taught in primary school how we're supposed to use 'an' instead of 'a' when we talk about an object whose name starts with a vowel, in its singular form.
-> An Apple -> An Ostrich-> ...
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Articles: "as leader" -- why not "as the leader"?
Source: AP Exclusive: Afghan Taliban leader claims 'victory' in city
Example:
The dramatic Taliban assault on Kunduz, a city of some 300,000 — and the boasts of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor — appeared ...
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"much of the sights" or "many of the sights"?
In this conversation, two people are talking about travelling when one of them says the following sentence:
I went to Paris once, but I didn't see MUCH OF the sights.
I think "sights" in this ...
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Singular or plural nouns after "No"
Which of the follows sentences sounds natural to you as an English speaker? Are both the sentences correct? And should I use plural or singular nouns after "no"?
Here are the sentences:
No man is ...
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Any differences between "I didn't have many apples" and "I had few apples"?
We all know that "I had a few apples" and "I had few apples" are different.
I wondered what the possible differences would be in the meaning of these two sentences:
I didn't have many apples.
I ...
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Is "no one of them seems grammatical" ungrammatical? Why?
I wonder if the following sentence will be grammatical in the most bizarre context:
No one of them seems grammatical.
Clearly, there are way better ways to phrase this sentence, either by using ...
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Comparing "the same ideas", "two similar ideas" and "two same ideas"
I'm very surprised to get only one result for "two same ideas" on Google Books, especially because the result appears in a grammar book (Everyday Grammar by Irene Chong):
Molly and Jimmy are good ...
user114
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