Articles, Determiners, and
Quantifiers
Definition
Articles, determiners,
and quantifiers are those little words that precede and modify nouns:
the teacher, a college, a
bit of honey, that person, those people, whatever purpose, either way, your choice
Sometimes these words
will tell the reader or listener whether we're referring to a specific or
general thing (the garage out back; A horse! A horse!
My kingdom for a horse!); sometimes they tell how much or how
many (lots of trees, several books, a
great deal of confusion). The choice of the proper article or
determiner to precede a noun or noun phrase is usually not a problem for
writers who have grown up speaking English, nor is it a serious problem for
non-native writers whose first language is a romance language such as Spanish.
For other writers, though, this can be a considerable obstacle on the way to
their mastery of English. In fact, some students from eastern European
countries — where their native language has either no articles or an altogether
different system of choosing articles and determiners — find that these
"little words" can create problems long after every other aspect of
English has been mastered.
Determiners are said to
"mark" nouns. That is to say, you know a determiner will be followed
by a noun. Some categories of determiners are limited (there are only three
articles, a handful of possessive pronouns, etc.), but the possessive nouns are
as limitless as nouns themselves. This limited nature of most determiner
categories, however, explains why determiners are grouped apart from adjectives
even though both serve a modifying function. We can imagine that the language
will never tire of inventing new adjectives; the determiners (except for those
possessive nouns), on the other hand, are well established, and this class of
words is not going to grow in number. These categories of determiners are as
follows: the articles (an, a, the — see below;
possessive nouns (Joe's, the priest's, my mother's); possessive pronouns, (his,
your, their, whose, etc.); numbers (one, two, etc.); indefinite pronouns (few,
more, each, every, either, all, both, some, any, etc.); and demonstrative
pronouns. The demonstratives (this, that, these, those, such)
are discussed in the section on Demonstrative
Pronouns. Notice that the possessive nouns differ from the other
determiners in that they, themselves, are often accompanied by other
determiners: "my mother’s rug," "the priests’
collar," "a dog's life."
This categorization
of determiners is based on Understanding English
Grammar by Martha Koln. 4rth
Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994.
Some Notes on
Quantifiers
Like articles, quantifiers are
words that precede and modify nouns. They tell us how many or how much.
Selecting the correct quantifier depends on your understanding the distinction
between Count and Non-Count
Nouns. For our purposes, we will choose the count noun trees and
the non-count noun dancing:
The following quantifiers will work with count nouns:
many trees
a few trees
few trees
several trees
a couple of trees
none of the trees
The following quantifiers will work with non-count
nouns:not much dancing
a little dancing
little dancing
a bit of dancing
a good deal of dancing
a great deal of dancing
no dancing
The following quantifiers will work with both
count and non-count nouns:all of the trees/dancing
some trees/dancing
most of the trees/dancing
enough trees/dancing
a lot of trees/dancing
lots of trees/dancing
plenty of trees/dancing
a lack of trees/dancing
In formal academic
writing, it is usually better to use many and much rather
than phrases such as a lot of, lots of and plenty of.
There is an important difference between "a
little" and "little" (used with
non-count words) and between "a few" and "few" (used
with count words). If I say that Martha has a little experience in
management that means that although Martha is no great expert she does have
some experience and that experience might well be enough for our purposes. If I
say that Martha has little experience in management that
means that she doesn't have enough experience. If I say that Charlie owns a
few books on Latin American literature that means that he has some
books — not a lot of books, but probably enough for our purposes. If I say that
Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature, that
means he doesn't have enough for our purposes and we'd better go to the library.
Unless it is combined
with of, the quantifier "much" is
reserved for questions and negative statements:
·
Much
of the snow has
already melted.
·
How much snow fell
yesterday?
·
Not much.
Note that the
quantifier "most of the" must include the definite
article the when it modifies a specific noun, whether it's a
count or a non-count noun: "most of the instructors at
this college have a doctorate"; "most of the water
has evaporated." With a general plural noun, however (when you are not referring
to a specific entity), the "of the" is dropped:
·
Most
colleges have their own
admissions policy.
·
Most
students apply to several
colleges.
An indefinite article is
sometimes used in conjunction with the quantifier many, thus
joining a plural quantifier with a singular noun (which then takes a singular
verb):
·
Many
a young man has fallen in love
with her golden hair.
·
Many
an apple has fallen by
October.
Articles, Determiners, and Quantifiers
in TOEFL Test
1.
Some
subsistence activities such as hunting large animals or netting fish require
----- to work together.
(A)
groups
are
(B)
groups
which
(C)
groups
(D)
that
groups
2.
The
ancient Egyptian water clock required sophisticated calibration, since water
dripped faster from its bowl when ----- and the pressure was greater.
(A)
the
full bowl
(B)
was
the bowl full
(C)
bowl
full
(D)
the
bowl was full
3.
Hair grows more quickly in summer
than in winter and more slowly at the night A B C
Than during the day.
D
4. Neither Sam nor James wanted
their name associated with the project.
A B C D
5. During a
early period in the settlement of the western United States, pioneers
A
claimed parts of the wilderness
by marking trees to establish a boundary.
B C D
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