Search results for 'tag:Grammar tag:Determiners' matching tags 'Grammar' and 'Determiners'

Re: Â«...clean grimy hands...Â»

MissMandy — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:30:41 GMT

Haha, you gave me a funny picture in my head. If you told Paul to wash a weary face, he would probably be looking around for someone else's weary face to wash because you can't tell him to wash his own face that way; a tells the listener that we are being generic. If you wanted him to wash his own weary face, you'd need a possessive determiner (your). So, yes, you seem correct.

When thinking about determiners (articles are a category of determiners), you always need to decide if the noun is count or non-count, and if it is count, if it is plural or singular as well as if it is generic of specific. With non-count nouns you need to decide if the noun is specific or generic. Once all of that has been decided, you still have lots of choices.(Go to Wikipedia's "Determiners" page to see the long list.)

If you want, send me an email and I'll send you a PDF graphic that I give to all my grammar students. Determiners are tiny, but powerful and confusing, little words. I'll send the file to anyone who wants it. Just send me your email.

~Miss Mandy

ADJECTIVE AND COMMA

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:15:00 GMT

Hi,

Last time I looked at the grammar.ccc.comnet.edu website, there were orders to adjectives like "Determiner", "Observation", "Physical Description", "Origin", "Material" and "Qualifier" and the part "Physical Description" is divided into "Size", "Shape", "Age" and "Color". I think/hope I have written them all correctly.

I believe I have used this phrase to ask whether commas should be there and I believe Mr. M said they should be there. I think his explanation was that they all describe gloves separately. To me, that means all three adjectives are not describing each other. I think there is a term for that but it escapes me now.

long, thick, protective gloves

Don't the adjectives fit any of the categories given above. To me, if any two or more do, then comma should not be used. Confused.

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Huevos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:50:05 GMT

Raen
1. As far as I know, all 3 articles are "always" followed by a noun and/or adjective+noun. Why are they labeled as "adjectives" when coming before a noun or adjective+noun? Why not just call them adjectives to begin with? and why can't they stand as their original identity which is "articles".

Here's what Wikipedia says: An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. The three main articles in the English language are the, an and a. It is sometimes wondered which part of speech articles belong to. Despite much speculation, articles are adjectives, as they do describe nouns; Linguists place them in a different category, that of determiners.

Raen
2. "my, your, our, their" are always adjective. A layman would say why not the other possessive pronouns: "her, his, her, its...". What's so special abut the first 4?

Wikipedia says no on this: Depending on the theory the grammar subscribes to, English "possessive adjectives" are determiners or pronouns: possessive determiners,[1] possessive pronouns,[2] dependent genitive pronouns,[3] weak possessive pronouns,[4] and so forth. They are not adjectives, because they can be substituted for and cannot co-occur with another determiner such as an article or a demonstrative.

So the answer to your question: "So would you say this particular grammar point is widely accepted by native-speakers and/or linguistic community?", is no.

Re: Grammar point, please help clarify this

Huevos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:08:46 GMT

Raen
So would you say this particular grammar point is widely accepted by native-speakers and/or linguistic community?

Whether or not people choose to accept it is irrelevant, it's a fact. Have a look at this:

smooth coat
chihuahua
domesticated
dog
canis
caninae
canidae
carnivora
mammal
chordata
animal

Now when you see a chihuahua ask the owner if it is a "chordata". Most would say no, it's a "chihuahua", but of course it is a "chordata", it's just that someone who doesn't understand the heirarchy or is not familiar with greater terminology wouldn't even know what a chordata was.

Words follow a similar heirarchy with lexical classes within lexical classes, within lexical classes. In the case of your question "adjectives" are a super class that contains, among others, determiners. Then in the determiner class we have, among others, articles, possessive derterminers (possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns), etc. And so on and so forth.

Re: Grammar Suggestion

Mr Wordy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:24:50 GMT

1. Why itâs not good using "Gently landing" I mean gently is adverb of verb landing?

There is no problem with "gently landing" itself. As you rightly say, "gently" is an adverb qualifying "landing". The issue is whether, in the sentence you wrote, the verb "landing" fits the noun "glow". It's not wrong, but to me it sounded slightly odd.

2. Glow is singular, so we use "it's" to balance subject-verb agreement, is it correct?

Almost. It should be "its", not "it's". (It's actually noun-determiner agreement rather than subject-verb agreement.)

Today, in these pleasant evening rays, different colors stepping [ or streaming would be good?] inn through my brown [adding different adjective] window, [situated word is ok?] over the tall blue, right-hand side wall, [same] I feel much relaxed -- light as fur, the dark cloud of stress and fatigue seemingly fading away.

"tall blue, right-hand side wall" is, to me, slightly too much. "right-hand side wall" isn't really grammatical, and again I question whether it helps the sentence to mention that it's "right-hand". If you really do want to include this kind of detail then I wonder if you would do better with two sentences -- perhaps one sentence to explain the layout of the room, window and wall, and another to describe the sun's rays and the feelings that they evoked.

As I mentioned before, "stepping" is the wrong word; "streaming" is fine. "Inn" should be "in". I don't understand what you mean by "situated word is ok?".

And I would like to ask, what if the last line [the dark cloud of stress and fatigue seemingly fading away]
I separate it from rest of the sentence. Would it be fine in case of coherence where each sentence should agree with previous?

I think I answered that one before. I said: "But if you were starting a new sentence then 'seem to be' would be correct: I feel much relaxed -- light as fur. The dark clouds of stress and fatigue seem to be fading away."

Re: on the first day morning

Clive — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:57:02 GMT

Hi,

Is it OK to say this?

We spent the morning of the first day exploring Bankok in a longboat Your grammar is fine, but 'longboat' sounds inappropriate. Names of different kinds of boats are quite specialized. Look for a picture of the kind of boat you mean. Or, you could just say 'in a boat'.

This "by-phrases", how much can we extend them?

I went to *** by in my father's car.

I went to *** by in a city taxi.

I went to *** by taxi. -- any taxies??

I went to *** by in a taxi. -- a specific taxi?

So, the distinction lies with the fact whether we are talking about a specific or a general transportation medium? No. It relates to whether you use a determiner. It's more a matter of idioms than it is a matter of logic.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Ending a grammar argument

MrPedantic — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:51:42 GMT

Hello Branwen319, welcome to English Forums! (Are there really 318 other Branwens here?)

No comma is needed; "your" is a possessive pronoun, and "no" is an indefinite determiner (i.e. they're not adjectives).

Two or more qualitative adjectives may be separated by a comma, e.g. "a long, thin piece of wood"; but if we use "my" instead of "a", it does not need to be followed by a comma, any more than "a" does (thus "my long, thin piece of wood", if for some reason we need to specify such a thing).

The trick is to treat the comma as a pause. Does your boyfriend pause after "your", when he says "your normal routine"? I doubt it. Better to save all those commas and cut down on toner.

Good luck!

MrP

Re: has / have

Yoong Liat — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:40:54 GMT

Grammar Geek

You need some sort of determiner before "meal."

In the U.S., we generlaly use a singular verb for family, but would still use "their" in the plural.

The dining area is where the family has/eats their meals.

It's the same in BrE; either a singular or a plural verb can be used after 'family'.

My family was/were in Orchard Road last Sunday.

Re: is this grammatical ?

Marius Hancu — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:20:57 GMT

This is not about grammar. Your grammar/structure is OK, but the understanding is poor.

You need to read more English books and watch English movies, and focus more on flow and less on grammar. You seem to be just learning rules and less flow.

------------

the relation between the way

This is broken. A relation is beween this and that, is between at least two terms.

process is strange in the context

be simple, until you really learn the language:

and find/see it is grammatically right.

3. part underlined

say:

underlined part

(the adjective/determiner is normally before the noun; you're not poet, yet)

Re: a/an is optional?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:57:27 GMT

Hey there!

Your example sentence is very good, and the article is in exactly the right place.

Articles can also be referred to as 'determiners,' since they determine specifically which object (noun) is being talked about. For example, when talking about a boy riding his bicycle, using 'a boy' tells that there is one specific boy that is riding his bike. However, when talking about John riding his bicycle, the name 'John' does not need an article ('a John' is never correct in English). The name itself is enough to tell that there is one specific person riding his bike.

In your sentence, 'organic bowel disease' is the name of a specific disease, so it does not need an article. "A functional condition" refers to a group of conditions, and does not specify which one is being discussed (since that is the task of the person who will answer the question). Since there are multiple functional conditions, and the question is asking for the identification of only one, it requires an article, 'a functional condition.'

Does that make sense?

Also, you are right to second-guess the grammar in your own question. It should be "there is no article," since 'article' is singular.