Determiners are words that come before nouns and specify something about their quantity, definiteness, or ownership.
Quantifying determiners specify something about the nouns they appear in front of by grouping them together or indicating how much or how many of them there are. They include words like many, some, few, any, all, and several.
Possessive determiners modify a noun by attributing possession (or other sense of belonging) to someone or something. They are also known as possessive adjectives.
When a quantifying determiner and a possessive determiner appear together before a noun, they can be used to indicate the quantity of something that belongs to someone or something else. For example:
For most of my life, I was terrified of ghosts.
The phrase “most of my” is used to indicate a large portion or majority of the speaker’s life. It suggests that the speaker spent a significant amount of their life being scared of ghosts. The exact duration is not specified and can vary based on the speaker’s age and personal experiences. The use of “most of” emphasizes the long-lasting and pervasive nature of this fear. It implies that this fear was not a brief or occasional feeling, but rather a consistent part of the speaker’s life for a long time.
All of our fathers enter our doors feeling hopeless.
The phrase “all of our” is used to indicate every father associated with the group of people the speaker is referring to. The word “all” is a quantifying determiner that refers to the total number or amount of a particular group or thing. In this case, it refers to every father within a certain group (possibly a family, community, or society). The use of “our” suggests a shared relationship or possession, indicating that these fathers are connected to the speaker and the group they represent.
Many of his senior team thought he was crazy.
So did many of his customers.
The phrase “many of his” is used to indicate a large number or significant portion of a specific group associated with a person (in this case, the senior team and customers).
The word “many” is a quantifying determiner that shows an unspecified large number or amount. The use of “his” indicates possession, referring to the senior team and customers that are associated with or belong to the person being talked about.
Profiling research
In the English Grammar Profile, A2 point 29 in DETERMINERS is defined:
quantifying determiners + possessive determiners + ‘of’ + noun.
(noun phrases)
The EGP examples include:
- all of my friends|money|family
- some of my|your clothes|DVDs
Therefore, we believe that the explanation should be rearranged to:
quantifying determiner + ‘of’ + possessive determiner + noun.
*Note that we believe being able to add an attributive adjective to the above structure should be considered at least B1.
PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE:
In fact, some of my habits are changed by my mood.
Arabic male level 3 writing class.
An iWeb search for:
_D of _AP _NN
1 MOST OF MY LIFE 9494
2 MOST OF YOUR TIME 8510
3 MOST OF THEIR TIME 8246
4 MOST OF MY TIME 7512
5 MOST OF HIS LIFE 6833
6 ALL OF OUR PRODUCTS 6635
7 MOST OF HIS TIME 6569
8 SOME OF MY FRIENDS 6503
9 MANY OF OUR CUSTOMERS 6486
10 ALL OF OUR CUSTOMERS 5904
11 MANY OF MY FRIENDS 5658
12 ALL OF MY FRIENDS 5061
13 SOME OF MY FAVORITES 4945
14 ALL OF OUR STUDENTS 4359
15 ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS 4327
16 MOST OF MY FRIENDS 4210
17 MUCH OF HIS TIME 4061
18 MANY OF OUR CLIENTS 3631
19 MOST OF HER LIFE 3525
20 SOME OF OUR FAVORITES 3454
21 MUCH OF THEIR TIME 3450
22 ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS 3392
23 MANY OF OUR STUDENTS 3362
24 MOST OF HIS CAREER 3347
25 ALL OF MY QUESTIONS 3221
26 MOST OF OUR TIME 3151
27 ALL OF YOUR DATA 3073
28 ALL OF MY LIFE 2904
29 SOME OF OUR CUSTOMERS 2685
30 MOST OF HER TIME 2667
31 MUCH OF HIS LIFE 2553
32 ALL OF OUR CLIENTS 2546
33 ALL OF YOUR NEEDS 2521
34 MUCH OF YOUR TIME 2487
35 ALL OF YOUR HELP 2449
36 ANY OF OUR PRODUCTS 2391
37 MOST OF THEIR LIVES 2381
38 ALL OF OUR LIVES 2338
39 MUCH OF MY TIME 2281
40 FEW OF MY FAVORITES 2172
41 ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS 2138
42 ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION 2098
43 ANY OF ITS SUBSIDIARIES 2072
44 MOST OF MY WORK 2026
45 MANY OF MY CLIENTS 2023
46 MOST OF OUR CUSTOMERS 2012
47 ALL OF YOUR OPTIONS 1979
48 ALL OF YOUR DEVICES 1976
49 FEW OF MY FRIENDS 1929
50 ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES 1923
51 ALL OF OUR GUESTS 1867
52 ALL OF OUR EMPLOYEES 1818
53 SOME OF HIS FRIENDS 1781
54 SOME OF MY FAVORITE 1777
55 ALL OF OUR FRIENDS 1771
56 SOME OF YOUR QUESTIONS 1754
57 ALL OF OUR QUESTIONS 1745
58 ANY OF YOUR QUESTIONS 1736
59 ANY OF MY FRIENDS 1726
60 MANY OF OUR MEMBERS 1707
61 MUCH OF HIS CAREER 1690
62 ALL OF YOUR TIME 1663
63 ALL OF YOUR MONEY 1648
64 ALL OF OUR MEMBERS 1645
65 MANY OF MY STUDENTS 1630
66 MUCH OF HIS WORK 1629
67 SOME OF OUR CLIENTS 1597
68 FEW OF OUR FAVORITES 1572
69 MUCH OF HER TIME 1551
70 MORE OF YOUR TIME 1517
71 MOST OF ITS TIME 1503
72 ALL OF YOUR WORK 1499
73 MANY OF OUR PRODUCTS 1495
74 MUCH OF MY LIFE 1483
75 MANY OF OUR READERS 1472
76 BOTH OF MY PARENTS 1442
77 ALL OF YOUR FILES 1436
78 SOME OF HIS WORK 1436
79 ALL OF OUR STAFF 1418
80 MORE OF HIS WORK 1408
81 MOST OF MY CLIENTS 1402
82 ALL OF YOUR POSTS 1400
83 MOST OF MY ADULT 1395
84 SEVERAL OF MY FRIENDS 1379
85 ALL OF YOUR ACCOUNTS 1358
86 ALL OF OUR SERVICES 1342
87 ALL OF MY STUDENTS 1341
88 ALL OF HIS LIFE 1315
89 MOST OF OUR CLIENTS 1303
90 SOME OF MY STUDENTS 1301
91 SOME OF OUR FAVOURITES 1296
92 MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES 1295
93 ALL OF YOUR HAIR 1286
94 ALL OF MY CLIENTS 1257
95 SOME OF MY THOUGHTS 1254
96 ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT 1222
97 SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES 1215
98 ALL OF HIS FRIENDS 1206
99 ALL OF YOUR BUSINESS 1202
100 MANY OF HIS FRIENDS 1185
A2:
colleagues, customers, few, files, guests, information, members, most, posts, several, staff