DETERMINERS

  • Determiners can express many meanings, such as number, quantity, distance, ownership, whether something is indefinite etc.
  • Determiners premodify noun phrases.
  • Determiners are a part of noun phrases and always come at the start of the noun phrase.
  • Some singular nouns must have a determiner.  A dog barks.”
  • More than one determiner can come before a noun.  It is rare to see 3 determiners together: “All my many houses…“, “...once every other month
  • Determiners can be premodified by intensifiers: “Less than ten people…
  • Most determiners also function as pronouns.  For example This food is good. ” “This is good.”

The + adjective

The 13 most common B2 adjectives found after the definite article are: actual, appropriate, current, entire, global, major, official, overall, potential, primary, royal, standard, ultimate A search in iWeb for: the _JJ 1 THE BEST 4698241 2 THE OTHER 3603343 3 THE NEW 3566930 4 THE ONLY 2604971 5 THE FOLLOWING 2598260 6 THE RIGHT …

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OF + determiner + noun

A search in the NOW corpus for: of _D _NN 1 OF THIS YEAR 347705 A1? Until March of this year,  I remained convinced that the denials were true  and that the charges of involvement  by members of the White House staff were false. listen 2 OF THIS ARTICLE 159611 3 OF ALL TIME 157121 superlative + of all time Enzo Ferrari will go down in history  as the greatest car manufacturer of all time. listen 4 OF THESE COOKIES 154496 You have got to try one of these cookies. listen …

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( LITTLE | NEXT | BUT ) TO NO + noun

We profile this prepositional construction at B1 because ‘no‘ can be used to pre-modify nouns at A2. However, it is usually found with extremely advanced phrases related to negative statements. A search in iWeb corpus for: to_II no _NN 1 TO NO AVAIL 26494 C2 unlisted in the EVP They tried to bring a case against her but to no avail. listen 2 TO …

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preposition + article + noun

In this post, we are looking for more advanced uses of the ‘preposition + article + noun phrase‘ structure.  For example: My life has been extraordinarily blessed  with marriage and children and certainly interesting work to do,  whether it be at the University of Sydney Law School,  where I served a term as dean,  or now as I sit on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,  in Geneva. TED On the whole, a more efficient ship is a quieter ship. TED A search in iWeb corpus for: _I _A _NN 1 AT THE END 1115284 2 IN THE WORLD 1112517 3 …

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AT + possessive determiner + NOUN

A search in the iWeb corpus for: at _APPGE _NN 1 AT HIS HOME 25665 *Although this is basic grammar, it often reports the locations of crimes such as murder.  For example: A man has been shot dead  at his home  in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last night. listen   2 AT YOUR FINGERTIPS 24481 C2 What’s it like to have such power  at your fingertips? listen 3 AT YOUR DISPOSAL 17599 …

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ALL ABOUT + noun phrase

“ALL ABOUT” is used to describe the purpose or an aspect of something. (OXFORD B1)
For example ‘Some days, we forgot all about getting to Italy.’ ‘It’s all about the money.’
2 ALL ABOUT MAKING 4081
3 ALL ABOUT WINNING 1859
4 ALL ABOUT GIVING 1851
5 ALL ABOUT CREATING 1801
6 ALL ABOUT FINDING 1480
7 ALL ABOUT TAKING 1397
8 ALL ABOUT TRYING 1340
9 ALL ABOUT PUTTING 1279
10 ALL ABOUT KEEPING 1279

article * CLASS

A search in iWeb corpus for: _A * CLASS 1 THE WORKING CLASS 20916 Public education is a way to improve and equalize educational opportunity, and a way to bring order and discipline to the working class. PELIC STUDENT: Chinese Male Level 5 Reading class 2 THE MIDDLE CLASS 20686 The Mirabal sisters and their husbands formed the June 14th movement along with many others from the middle class. TED 3 A WORLD CLASS 14222 (*this should probably be a hyphenated adjective) = A WORLD-CLASS + NOUN 4 THE FIRST …

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verb + noun + TO THE + noun

A search in NOW corpus for: _VV _N to the _N 1 GAIN ACCESS TO THE SUBSCRIBER 3211 2 THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND 1721 A search for collocates: 1 DECIDED 95 I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it. foxnews.com 2 WILLING 21 He‘s been pretty extreme throughout his career and been willing to throw caution to the wind. ewrestlingnews.com 3 DECIDE 21 4 MEAN 19 5 DECIDES 15 6 THEREFORE 13 …

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their native + language | tongue

‘your native language or tongue’ is B2 in the English Vocabulary Profile with the meaning: ‘the first language you learn.’  For example: Now, they speak English but it‘s not their native language,  they‘d rather not speak English. TED A collocate search for _APPGE native language|tongue in COCA: 1 LANGUAGE 566 2 THEIR 412 3 TONGUE 3004 ENGLISH 80 5 SPEAK 53 6 SPEAKING 28 7 SPANISH …

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one of

In the English Vocabulary Profile, ‘one’ is listed as a  DETERMINER PARTICULAR PERSON/THING A2 used to refer to a particular person or thing in a group This is one of the most important documents in history. listen An iWeb search: * * * one of 1 . THIS IS ONE OF 50763 2 THIS IS ONE OF 38872 3 . IT …

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little to

How is ‘little to‘ tagged in iWeb corpus? 1 LITTLE (DA1) TO (TO) 35055 determiner + infinitive Julie, if you just simmer down, you will see what has happened here has little to do with our relationship. NSFW example 6 LITTLE (JJ) TO (II) 6944 7 LITTLE (RR22) TO (II) 6395 adverbial phrase modifying prepositional phrase A little to the left, a little to the right, somebody could have gotten hurt. listen 19 LITTLE (JJ) TO (TO) 1272 23 LITTLE (RR) …

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my | your | his | her | our + NOUN

A1 point 9 in the category of DETERMINERS is defined: possessive determiners ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘our’ before nouns. A search in iWeb for: my|your|his|her|our _NN 1 YOUR BUSINESS 624027 You need to know a lot of things about how to make your business. TLC STUDENT EXAMPLE male Russia B2 2 YOUR HOME 598828 3 MY LIFE 576086 4 YOUR LIFE 560286 5 YOUR …

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determiner + noun phrase (increasing range)

Here’s a student example of a determiner + uncountable noun: My teacher told me “enjoy the music and you will dance naturally.” PELIC Taiwanese female level 3 writing class A2 point 18 in the category of  NOUNS is defined: form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners. A2 point 24 in the category of NOUNS: form …

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