Û
201a
):
possessive determiner
possessive pronoun
my
mine
your (singular)
yours
his
his
her
hers
its
(no form)
one’s
(no form)
our
ours
your (plural)
yours
their
theirs
My dad would beat yours in a fight.
I’ve lived my life. She’s just starting hers.
You see, they go to their church first and we go to ours, and then we meet, you
know, afterwards.
another
any (strong form)
any (weak form)
both
each
(a) few, fewer, fewest
either, neither
enough
(a) little, less, least
many, more, most
much, more, most
one (numeral)
several
some (strong form)
some (weak form)
these, those
this, that
two, three
which
whose
358 | Nouns and determiners
Cambridge Grammar of English
If possessive determiners are postmodified with own, they retain their form when
used pronominally:
I always forget birthdays. I have enough trouble remembering my own.
(I have enough trouble remembering mine own.)
Singular all + noun may be substituted by it all or all of it. Plural all + noun may
be replaced by we/you/they/us/them all or all of us/you/them:
We’ve got so much
stuff
, there’s no way we’re going to eat it all (or all of it).
(… there’s no way we’re going to eat all.)
[to a taxi driver]
There are four
people
. Can you take us all (or all of us)?
They
’ve all been together from secondary school. Well some of them from
primary school. And there’s a really strong bond between them all. And they all
care about one another.
It/you/us/them all cannot be used in a reduced clause when there is no verb:
A: Has he eaten
the cauliflower
?
B: Not all of it.
(Not it all.)
A: Whose are
all the books
?
B: Harold’s.
A: All of them?
B: Mm. All of them.
A: Wow!
(Them all? Mm. Them all.)
When a subject pronoun + all is used, all occupies the mid position for adverbs
(
Û
325
):
We’ll all meet again tomorrow.
(preferred to: We all will meet again tomorrow.)
Û
also
201 Possessive pronouns
A–Z
12 All
OF + DEFINITE NOUN PHRASE
191
Some combinations of determiners are not permitted (e.g. some/any followed by
my/the/this). However, some pronoun forms of determiners may combine with of
+ definite noun phrase (or definite pronoun) to produce partitive meanings (i.e.
expressing a partial quantity or number out of a totality):
determiner of definite noun phrase
Do you want | some | of | that stuff?
A–Z
55 Of
Û
539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms
Nouns and determiners | 359
Determiners which operate in this way are:
It was yet another of those things that you couldn’t describe, but you’d know it
when you saw it.
He’s not going to go back on any of his decisions.
I don’t think we have enough of that.
Every one of my friends turned up.
(Every of my friends turned up.)
Neither of the men had said a word.
At one time, almost all the drugs in use were extracted directly from plants.
Some of the plants in your garden may contain essential medical drugs.
I’d also like to say thanks to those of my colleagues who can’t be here tonight.
(I’d also like to say thanks to the of my colleagues who can’t be here tonight.)
Two of the boys had nine children between them.
Which of those policies would seem the best?
OF + POSSESSIVE PRONOUN AFTER THE HEAD NOUN
192
Some determiners may combine with of + possessive pronoun used after the head
noun:
determiner head noun
of possessive pronoun
I run a company with |
a
| friend | of | mine.
✪
Note that the pronoun is in the possessive form, not the object form:
I run a company with a friend of mine.
(I run a company with a friend of me.)
Determiners which may be used in this way are those listed in
191 and in addition
the, zero determiner, noun phrase + ’s (the so-called possessive ’s construction),
this/that/these/those, what and such:
She was moving out and she gave the keys to some friends of hers.
If every word of yours is in there, the person has infringed your copyright.
a/an (in the form of
one of)
all
another
any (strong form)
any (weak form)
both
each
either, neither
enough
every (in the form of
every one of)
(a) few, fewer, fewest
(a) little, less, least
many, more, most
much, more, most
no (pronoun form
none)
several
some (strong form)
some (weak form)
one (numeral), two,
three, etc.
the (in the form those
of)
which
360 | Nouns and determiners
Cambridge Grammar of English
A friend of my sister’s took that photo.
Besides, you want any child of yours to live a long and healthy life.
That house of theirs must have cost a fortune to build.
What money of hers that was left went to her children.
I was just thinking of old friends of mine who I grew up with.
(zero determiner)
POSSESSIVE ’S
193
The possessive ’s construction is used to describe the possession or attribution of
particular things, features, qualities or characteristics. It operates syntactically like
the possessive determiners my, your, his, etc., and is best considered as a determiner:
The possessive ’s construction occurs with more complex noun phrases as well as
with simple ones:
The Prince of Albania’s daughter
The director of the company’s statement
Dr Smith’s patients
The use of possessive ’s is sometimes arbitrary. For example, lamb’s liver is said but
not lamb liver. On the other hand, chicken breast (not chicken’s breast) is said.
The possessive ’s is common in general measurements of time:
today’s news
yesterday’s political party
three weeks’ holiday
twenty minutes’ delay
The possessive ’s rather than the noun + noun construction is also used when the
reference is more precise and specific:
I always spend ages reading the Sunday paper.
(general reference)
The recipe you want was in last Sunday’s paper.
(specific, unique reference)
Û
506 Appendix: Punctuation
cow’s milk
goat’s cheese
men’s jackets
the school’s
development plan
Jean’s bicycle
Vietnam’s economy
America’s foreign
policy
Û
539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms
Nouns and determiners | 361
NUMERALS
194
Numerals can be either cardinal (e.g. two, sixteen) or ordinal (e.g. first, third).
Cardinals
Cardinal numbers are used as determiners, but they are also used as head nouns
and pronouns. As heads, cardinals are inflected like nouns:
Only fifteen people attended the meeting.
(determiner)
Two cats are always better than one cat.
(determiner)
Twenty of our group were German.
(determiner with of + definite noun phrase)
Troubles always come in threes.
(head noun)
A: How many screws do you need?
B: I just need two.
(pronoun)
When dozen, hundred, thousand, million and billion are premodified, no final -s
is used. When they are not modified, plural -s + of occurs:
five hundred pounds
(five hundreds pounds)
hundreds of pounds
several thousand people
thousands of people
a few million years
millions of years
Ordinals
Ordinal numbers refer to entities in a series or sequence. They are used as
determiners and are normally preceded by other determiners such as the definite
article or a possessive determiner:
It was the tenth and final album in a long career.
We celebrated his first birthday in Hong Kong.
Ordinals can also be used as the heads of noun phrases:
I like all of them but the fourth was the best.
It was calculated in hundredths and thousandths.
Ordinals can also be used as adverbs:
Merry came third in the race.
First, we need to clear the chairs away.
362 | Nouns and determiners
Cambridge Grammar of English
AGREEMENT PROBLEMS WITH DETERMINERS
195
Some determiner phrases present choices of agreement. This principally concerns
the use of none of, either of, neither of, any of, half, and numeral expressions
between one and two (e.g. one and a half). There are also cases where singular
determiners are used with plural numerals.
None of
In traditional views of grammar and in more formal styles, none of + plural count
noun has singular concord with a verb. In such usage, none of is seen as a negated
form of one:
The other assistants in the shoe shop seemed to manage on their wages. Of
course, none of them was supporting a child, and the male assistant got sixty
per cent more than the women.
In everyday spoken and written informal usage, none of + plural count noun
typically has plural concord with a verb. The plural head noun is treated as the
notional subject of the verb:
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