Determiners and quantifiers

Determiners and quantifiers are words we use in front of nouns. We use determiners to identify things (this book, my sister) and we use quantifiers to say how much or how many (a few people, a lot of problems).

Read clear grammar explanations and example sentences to help you understand how determiners and quantifiers are used. Then, put your grammar knowledge into practice by doing the exercises.

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thank you sir

Hello sir Which of the following sentence is correct? 1) The man asked his son to go Agra by bike. Or 2) The man asked his son go Agra by bike 1) I suggest you (put) put on sun block immediately before you get a sun burn. why not sentence is like:-- 1) I suggest you (put) to put on sunblock immediately before you get a sun burn. similarly other sentences like ->The environmentalist leader felt it was extremely important that the people of the city be allowed to voice their concerns over the new hotel being built on the bay. Why ‘to be allowed’ is not used Sir I read subjunctive topic in English grammar. i understood the use of bare infinitive verbs but have problem in using 'to' in such types of sentences. Sometimes use of 'to' is corrected and sometimes not please explain with examples in this regard Thanking You

Hello Mohd Zaffar,

That's a lot of questions! I'll answer a few and then if you have any others, please ask us again, though please limit yourself to one or two per comment.

The first sentence is correct, though the preposition 'to' is needed before 'Agra'.

As for your questions about verbs like 'suggest' and 'feel' and the patterns that follow them, this really depends on the specific verb being used. In other words, each verb is followed by different patterns. You can find information about these patterns in a good dictionary -- for example, see this page on the verb 'suggest'.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello sir Which of the following sentence is correct? 1) The man asked his son to go Agra by bike. Or 2) The man asked his son go Agra by bike.

Hello Mohd Zaffar,

You need to use 'to' here so the first sentence is correct and the second one is incorrect.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

thank you sir but what about following sentences like 1) I suggest you (put) put on sun block immediately before you get a sun burn. why not sentence is like:-- 1) I suggest you (put) to put on sunblock immediately before you get a sun burn. similarly other sentences like ->The environmentalist leader felt it was extremely important that the people of the city be allowed to voice their concerns over the new hotel being built on the bay. Why ‘to be allowed’ is not used Sir I read subjunctive topic in English grammar. i understood the use of bare infinitive verbs but have problem in using 'to' in such types of sentences. Sometimes use of 'to' is corrected and sometimes not please explain with examples in this regard Thanking You

Hello Mohd Zaffar,

This is really just a question of verb patterns. Certain verbs are used with a to-infinitive and others are not. It is a simply a question of learning which are which; there is nothing about the verb which tells you what kind of pattern it follows, I'm afraid.

suggest someone + subjunctive (I suggest you go)

feel it important that someone + subjunctive (I feel it important that he go)

You can read more about different verb patterns in the relevant section (here) – us the links on the right to move to specific areas.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

thank you sir

I want to know where and how to use 'would' (in past sense) and where to use 'did' ?

Hello chandersheel,

These are both auxiliary verbs. We use 'did' to form questions and negative in the past tense:

She went to the shop.

Question: Did she go to the shop? / Where did she go?

Negative: She didn't go to the shop.

'Would' is a modal verb and we use it in a number of ways. You can see those ways on this page.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Some times first letter of every word in a heading or title of an article is capitalized, except for article 'the'. e.g. this headline : 'Sinking Deeper Into the MSP Mire' Hear MSP means Minimum support price for agriculture commodities. I would like to know the different conventions in beginning every word in heading with capital letter , and why 'the' starts with lowercase letter in above heading.

Hello dipakrgandhi,

The convention for titles is to capitalise each word other than what are considered 'grammar words' (articles, prepositions etc). However, a specific style will be set by each publication and some prefer to use normal capitalisation, for example. The best way to familiarise yourself with these styles is to look at a range of newspapers and other media sources and pay attention to how they do it.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you!

Sir, I wrote the following first sentence while forwarding an application to the higher authorities . " The application for the revival of the account no 3857DF received from the depositor ,Mr. John is sent herewith." Here , I am introducing an application of which the higher authorities have no prior knowledge . So I must have used ' an application '. But when a noun is post modified by a prepositional phrase { ' for revival ----} , definite article should be used as I did . Which is correct ? Similarly can I use 'application for revival ' instead of 'application for the revival ' ? Kindly explain .

Hello p t balagopal,

The definite article is required here as the sentence contains its own clarification of which application is being referred to. You can use either 'the revival' or 'revival'. However, we would not use any article before 'account'. When a noun is numbered in this way we use the zero article. Thus, we would say 'go to house number 3' not 'the house'.

The setence would therefore be as follows:

The application for revival of account no 3857DF received from the depositor, Mr. John, is sent herewith.

This is a very formal phrasing, however, and not the normal way we would normally phrase it. I think we would use 'enclosed' (if the application is part of a letter) or 'attached' (if sent electronically):

Please find enclosed the application for revival of account no 3857DF, received from the depositor, Mr. John.

Please find attached the application for revival of account no 3857DF, received from the depositor, Mr. John.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Sir, Thanks for your reply. I never expected it to be so detailed. Thanks for your effort. Balagopal

Sir A friend asked: is the statement "what did James is wrong" correct or grammatically wrong?

Hello Akong,

The sentence is wrong. The correct sentence would be as follows:

What James did is wrong.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Sir Which of these sentences is correct 1 "What John did is wrong" 2 "What John did was wrong" Then sir, in the correct sentence, does "what" serve as DEMONSTRATIVE or INTEROGATIVE determiner?

Hi Akong,

Both are correct and the structure of both is that of a wh-cleft sentence. 'what' acts as a kind of pronoun here.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Sir, I am confused with the use of nouns in the following sentence: 1. The German or The Germans are patriot. Which one is correct? Thanks in advance.

Hello amol,

The Germans are patriots is the correct option.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Dear Sirs, Please have a look at these two sentences: 1. The girls sitting over there are my cousins. 2. Girls sitting over there are my cousins. I know the first sentence is grammatically correct but I can't explain why sentence 2 is incorrect. Let's say, my listener (say my friend) is hearing it from me for the first time. In this situation, he does not know the specific or definite girls. I tend to believe that this situation calls for a zero article (I am confused if I have to say zero article or a zero article). How does the meaning change if I use sentence 2 or it would be patently wrong? I would be grateful if you could provide me with some clues about how to think about this issue. Reading grammar books is not helping me much in this matter! Thanks in advance!

Hello cbenglish,

We use the definite article (the) when the noun is known and/or identified; in other words, when a specific item is referred to and not just any item or all items in general.

In your sentence the item is specified. You are not just talking about any girls, but about the specific girls who are sitting over there. Therefore the definite article is needed and the sentence without 'the' is incorrect.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello sir, Why do you say "...referred to" and not just "...referred". Thanks so much!

Hello Ivánnn,

The verb 'refer' always occurs with the preposition 'to'. It is what we call a dependent preposition.

You can read more about these on this page.

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Sirs, I am trying to compose a sentence: Imagine what it would be like to live without [a] language. I just can't figure out whether I should use an indefinite article before the noun language. To me use of an article in the sentence above appears optional. Am I right in my thinking? Thanks in advance!

Hello cbenglish,

The sentence is correct both with and without the article, and both have a general meaning.

It is possible to use different articles with a general meaning but there are some changes in emphasis and even meaning. I wrote quite a long explanation of this in answer to another use a while ago. You can find that post here"

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/comment/121889#comment-121889

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Sir In the sentence: the book on the table is mine..we understand that the article is definit (the) What if we say: that book on the table is mine. is (that) also a definite article in this case or the sentence is wrong.

Hello Akong,

Yes, you can use 'that' and the sentence is grammatically correct. 'that', like 'the', is a determiner, but only 'the' is a definite article.

By the way, you only need to submit your posts once. We check all comments before they are published and so it can take some time before your comments appear on our site. Thanks in advance for your cooperation with this.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

They have eaten it all. In this sentence to me all is an adverb because it is describing how much they have eaten. But a dictinary is saying it is a pronoun. Plz guide.

Hello aseel aftab,

The word 'all' has many uses. You can find good guides here:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/quantifiers/all

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/all_1

However, I would suggest that you try not to worry too much about the labels given to particular parts of speech. We can use 'all' as a pronoun followed by of (all of them) or following an object pronoun (them all), but identifying the name of the form is much less important than knowing what it means and how it is used.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

What is the difference between all the food and all of the food?

Hello aseel aftab,

All can be used with general or specific meaning; all of can only be used with specific meaning:

All cats have whiskers. [every example of a cat anywhere - general]

~~All of~~ cats have whiskers.

All these cats are black. [every example of a cat in this group - specific]

All of these cats are black.

Both can be used with nouns (as above).

Both can be used with possessive adjectives (all your cats / all of your cats).

We can only use all of before pronouns:

All of you are my friends.

~~All~~ you are my friends.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

What's the difference between a determiner of quantifiers and pronoun. Some dictionaries also say one thing is both pronoun and determiner and their uses are also same so how can we avoid confusions?

Hello aseel aftab,

Words can have different uses, so a word like 'fast' can be an adjective (a fast car), and adverb (go fast) and a verb (fast for a week), for example.

With regard to the names given to these forms, please see my answer to your other question below.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Are they not demonstrative adjectives or simply adjectives as they are describing noun? This is what I have read in an english learning book plz guide

Hello aseel aftab,

Different labels can be applied to determiners. You can find a discussion of this on the relevant wikipedia page in the section headed 'Description':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determiner

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

hello why we should use article definite the in this sentence?: I love living in ____the__ country. I love ___the___ peace and quiet you find there.

Hello Abdel El,

We use the definite article when something is specfied for both the speaker and listener. One way to think of this is that if we use the definite article then we can answer the question 'which'.

For example, in your sentence we can ask these questions:

Which country?

Which peace and quiet?

The answers are:

Not just any country, but the country I love.

Not just any peace and quiet, but the peace and quiet you find in the country the speaker loves.

I hope that helps the clarify it for you.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello dear Peter, Thank you, thank you a lot.

Hello dear team, Could you kindly use the phrase (very much though) in a sentence. I can not provide the context, I heard it on an interview with a star, it is so fast that I can not hear it. Thank you

Hello Hosseinpour,

I can't be sure, but I think the phrase you heard may have been very much so rather than very much though.

Very much so is a way of agreeing with something in an emphatic way:

Do you like swimming?

Very much so! I go swimming every morning, in fact.

You can read more about the phrase here and here.

We do not use very much though as a phrase. The words can occur together, but as separate phrases:

I like swimming very much, though I don't go swimming very often.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello dear Kirk, Thank you, thanks a lot.

Hello dear team, Can I say ( I change iron to gold, or should I use 'into'') Thank you

Hello Hosseinpour,

'in' is possible, but 'into' is more commonly used and the form I would recommend here. You might also be interested in learning the word 'transmute' (also used with 'into'), which is used an alchemical contexts such as the one you appear to be writing in here.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hi The word "stage", meaning a raised platform..., is listed in the Cambridge dictionary (and others as well) as a countable noun. But the example sentences don't use articles before "stage". For example, "Hamlet is on stage for most of the act", is an example sentence in the Cambridge dictionary. Please clarify why article has been omitted?

Hi Adya's,

On stage and on the stage are both correct but have different uses.

The phrase on stage is actually an adjective or adverb which tells us that a given person is visible to the audience. The opposite is off stage and both phrases can be written as single words (onstage/offstage). It can be used with regard to film as well, or even to other public situations such as television or public meetings: The politician behaved one way onstage and quite another in private.

We can say on the stage to describe where someone is and then we would use the article.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thanks a lot.

Hello dear Kirk, Thank you, thanks a lot.