THE POSSESSIVE WITH 'S AND '

FORMING THE POSSESSIVE WITH 'S AND '

Possession is often indicated in English by adding 's or ' at the end of the noun indicating the possessor.

John owns a car. ('John' is the possessor)
It is John's car.
Mary is the wife of Peter.
Mary is Peter's wife.

Examples:
The car of John = John's car.
The house of Simon = Simon's house.
The room of the girls = The girls' room.
The jobs for men = The men's jobs.
The sister of Charles = Charles' sister.
The boat of the sailors = The sailors' boat.

Using 's and '

1.Singular nouns take 's
2.irregular plurals take 's

 1.The car of John = John's car.
2.The dresses of the women = The women's dresses

3.Nouns ending in s (plural or singular take '

 3.The sister of Charles = Charles' sister
4.The boat of the sailors = The sailors' boat.
5.The teacher of the students = The students' teacher.
6.The fortune of Howard Hughes= Howard Hughes' fortune.

DETERMINERS

FUNCTION AND CLASSES OF DETERMINERS

Function

A determiner qualifies a noun. It makes the reference of the noun more precise.

2.Classes of Determiners

There are seven classes of determiners

DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES THE, A, AN

The articles do not have gender in English (there are no masculine or feminine articles)

1 Definite article : THE

Examples:
The man.
The woman.
The boy.
The boys. (n.b. plural)
The definite article is not usually used :

GENERAL RULES: the definite article is not generally used:

a.In front of proper nouns:
Mount Everest

b.In front of the names of languages
Arabic

c.In front of meal names
Breakfast..

d.In front of titles indicating the name or position of someone.
King William..

e.After the 's of the possessive.
Peter's car..

f.With nouns that are uncountable
Rice is the main food in Asia.

More examples:
In front of proper nouns
a.Germany is an important economic power.
b.Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in Alaska.
c.Victoria Station is in the centre of London.

In front of the names of languages
a.French is spoken in Tahiti.
b.English uses many words of Latin origin.
c.Indonesian is a relatively new language.

In front of the names of meals
a.Lunch is at midday.
b.Dinner is in the evening.
c.Breakfast is the first meal of the day.

In front of people's titles or professions
a.Prince Charles is Queen Elizabeth's son.
b.President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
c.Dr.Watson was Sherlock Holmes' friend.

After the 's possessive case
a.His brother's car.
b.Peter's house.
c.My mother's friend.

With uncountable nouns
a.Rice is the main food in Asia.
b.Milk is often added to tea in England.
c.War is destructive.

The indefinite articles : a, an

a goes before a consonnant

an before a vowel.

A boy.
An apple.
A car.
An orange.
A house.
An opera.

Note:

An before an h mute: - an hour, an honour.
A before u and eu when they are pronounced 'you': a european, a university, a unit.

The indefinite article is used before professions, nationalities and religions

John is a doctor.
He is an Englishman.(He is English)
 He is a Protestant.

THE DEMONSTRATIVES : THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE, THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE

They indicate distance between the speaker and the object (physical or psychological) .

.Function and Position

a. Position :

i. In front of the noun

ii.Alone when the noun is 'understood'.

Examples:
I like this car.
I do not like that car.
How much are these?
What are those?

b. Function :
i. This, that are singular.
ii.These, those are plural.

Examples:
Singular:
She knows this man.
He knows that woman.

Plural:
She knows these men.
He knows those women.

They indicate the distance of the object from the speaker.

It can be a physical distance as in :
Who owns that house? (distant)
Is this John's house? (near)

Or it can be a psychological distance as in :
I do not like that man. (distant)
This is a nice surprise! (near)

THE POSSESSIVES

POSSESSIVES:

Possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives



PERSON 			ADJECTIVES			PRONOUNS


1st (I) 		my 				mine


2nd (you) 		your 				yours


3rd (he) 		his 				his


(she) 			her 				hers


(it)			it 				its


Plural


1st (we) 		our 				ours


2nd (you) 		your 				yours


3rd (they) 		their 				theirs

Important

1. In English the possessive refers to the possessor and not to the thing possessed.

Jane's brother is married to John's sister.
Her brother is married to his sister.

Examples:
a. Peter and his sister.
b. Jane and her father.
c. Do you know where your books are?
d. Is this their picnic? No, it is ours.
e. I think this is your passport. Yes, it is yours.

THE QUANTIFIERS

Quantifiers:

They are used for quantities (amounts) that are approximative and inexact.

I have a little money.

I have many friends. .

MUCH and MANY, (A) LITTLE, (A) FEW, A LOT

With nouns that we can count.
a few, few, many

Used with nouns that we can not count.
a little, little, much


With both countable and uncountable nouns:
A lot of

Generally, much et many are used with the negative and interrogative forms.

With the affirmative form we use a lot of.

Examples:
With countable nouns: many, few, a few, a lot of
a. Are there many people in Australia?
b. No, there are few people in Australia.
c. Would you like a few postcards?
d. He hasn't many opportunities.
e. Judy has a lot of friends.

With uncountable nouns: much, little, a little, a lot of.
a. How much is that dress?
(note: we can omit the noun 'money')
b. I have a little money in the bank.
c. She doesn't have much time with her children.
d. There is a lot of information about Italy in this travel brochure.
e. How much do you know about China?

SOME and ANY

SOME and ANY are used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
They indicate a part or quantity of a substance or object.

SOME is usually used in an affirmative sentence.
SOME can also be used in interrogative or hypothetical sentences.
Would you like some more tea?
 Will you have some cake?

ANY is generally used in negative or interrogative sentences.

Examples:
SOME with affirmative sentences.
a. I will have some news next week.
b. She has some valuable books in her house.
c. Philip wants some help with his exams.
d. There is some butter in the fridge.
e. We need some cheese if we want to make a fondue.

SOME with interrogative hypothetic sentences.
a. Would you like some help?
b. Will you have some more roast beef?

ANY with negative sentences
a. She doesn't want any kitchen appliances for Christmas.
b. They don't want any help moving to their new house.
c. No, thank you. I don't want any more cake.
d. There isn't any reason to complain.

ANY with interrogative sentences
a. Do you have any friends in London?
b. Have they any children?
c. Do you want any groceries from the shop?
d. Are there any problems with your work?

Compound nouns made with SOME , ANY and NO

Words formed with SOME or ANY follow the same rules as SOME and ANY used alone.

Words formed with NO (nothing, nobody, nowhere) are used in affirmative sentences to give a negative sense to the sentence.

Compare:

I don't know anybody. = I know nobody.
She doesn't want anything. = She wants nothing.

Check these word in your dictionary:
Somebody, something, somewhere
Anybody, anything, anywhere
Nobody, nothing, nowhere

Examples:

SOMETHING, SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE ( + affirmative)
a. I have something to tell you.
b. There is something to drink in the fridge.
c. He knows somebody in New York.
d. Susie has somebody staying with her.
e. They want to go somewhere hot for their holidays.
f. Keith is looking for somewhere to live.

ANYBODY, ANYTHING, ANYWHERE ( + Interrogative and Negative)
a. Is there anybody who speaks English here?
b. Does anybody have the time?
c. Is there anything to eat?
d. Have you anything to say?
e. He doesn't have anywhere to stay tonight.
f. I wouldn't eat anywhere except at Maxim's.

NOBODY, NOTHING, NOWHERE (+ affirmative)
a. There is nobody in the house at the moment.
b. When I arrived there was nobody to meet me.
c. I have learnt nothing since I began the course.
d. There is nothing to eat.
e. There is nowhere as beautiful as Paris in the Spring.
f. Homeless people have nowhere to go at night.

ANY with the Affirmative
Here the possible CHOICE is from the whole range of possibilities.
Examples:
a. You can borrow any of my books.
b. They can choose anything from the menu.
c. You may invite anybody to dinner, I don't mind.

GRADED QUANTIFIERS

They function like comparatives and hold a relative position on a scale of increase or decrease.

INCREASE

From O% to 100%
With plural countable nouns:
many, more, most
With uncountable nouns:
much ,more, most

DECREASE
From 100% to 0%
With plural countable nouns:
few, fewer, fewest
With uncountable nouns:
little, less, least

Examples:
a. There are many people in England, more in India, but the most people live in China.
b. Much time and money is spent on education, more on health services but the most is spent on national defence.
c. Few rivers in Europe are not polluted.
d. Fewer people die young now than in the seventeenth century.
e. The country with the fewest people per square kilometre must be Australia.
f.Scientists have little hope of finding a complete cure for cancer before the year 2,000.
g. She had less time to study than Paul but had better results.
h. Give that dog the least opportunity and it will bite you.

a few and a little have a different meaning than few and little:

a few, a little = positive meaning

 I have a few friends.= I have SOME friends.

I have a little money. = I have SOME money.

few, little = negative meaning

 I have few friends.= I do not have MANY friends.
I have little money.= I do not have MUCH money.

ENOUGH + NOUN

Enough goes before the noun

There is enough bread for lunch.
She has enough money.

Enough is often used with adjectives and adverbs.

Examples :

a. We didn't have enough time to visit London Bridge.
b. Are there enough eggs to make an omelette?
c. Richard has enough talent to become a singing star.

HALF, DOUBLE, BOTH, ALL

Half = 50%

Double = the quantity + 100% of that quantity

Both = the two , not only the one (this one AND that one)

All = 100%, whole amount

ALL and HALF

With nouns that are countable and with nouns that are uncountable.

BOTH with nouns that are plural and countable

DOUBLE with uncountable nouns

Examples:

a. You can have half of the cake and Peter can have the other half.
b. There is a double quantity of rice for the hurricane victims.
c. Both children were born in Italy.
d. All men are born equal.

NUMBERS 



Number		Cardinal			Ordinal 





1 		one 				first


2 		two 				second


3 		three 				third


4 		four 				fourth


5 		five 				fifth


6 		six 				sixth


7 		seven 				seventh


8 		eight 				eighth


9 		nine 				ninth


10 		ten 				tenth


11 		eleven 				eleventh


12 		twelve 				twelfth


13 		thirteen 				thirteenth


14 		fourteen 				fourteeth


15 		fifteen 				fifteenth


16 		sixteen 				sixteenth


17 		seventeen 			seventeenth


18 		eighteen 				eighteenth


19 		nineteen 				nineteenth


20 		twenty 				twentieth


21 		twenty-one 			twenty-first


22 		twenty-two 			twenty-second


23 		twenty-three 			twenty-third


24 		twenty-four 			twenty-fourth


25 		twenty-five 			twenty-fifth


26 		twenty-six 			twenty-sixth


27 		twenty-seven 			twenty-seventh


28 		twenty-eight 			twenty-eighth


29 		twenty-nine 			twenty-ninth


30 		thirty 				thirtieth


31 		thirty-one 				thirty-first


40 		forty 				fortieth


50 		fifty 				fiftieth


60 		sixty 				sixtieth


70 		seventy 				seventieth


80 		eighty 				eightieth


90 		ninety 				ninetieth


100 		one hundred 			hundredth


500 		five hundred 			five hundredth


1,000 		one thousand 			thousandth


100,000 		one hundred thousand 		hundred thousandth


1,000,000 	one million 			millionth

Examples:

a. There are twenty-five people in the room.
b. He was the fourteenth person to win the award since 1934.
c. Six hundred thousand people were left homeless after the earthquake.
d. I must have asked you twenty times to be quiet.
e. He went to Israel for the third time this year. 



Written 	Said 


25% 		twenty five percent


50% 		fifty percent


75% 		seventy five percent


100% 		one hundred percent


$1,200 		one thousand two hundred dollars


£16,486 	sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds


545kms 		five hundred and forty-five kilometres


$25.35 		twenty-five dollars thirty-five


1988 		Nineteen eighty-eight


1864 		Eighteen sixty-four


1999 		Nineteen ninety-nine

THE EXCLAMATIVES: SUCH and WHAT

These excalamatives introduce an expression of surprises, admiration or another strong emotion or reaction.

Examples:

What a surprise!
Such a waste!
Such a terrible man!
What a disgusting cup of coffee!
What a lovely day!
She's such a lovely woman!
What an incredible film!
He's such a fantastic guitarist!

THE DISTRIBUTIVES :EITHER, NEITHER, EACH, EVERY

Each, every, either, neither indicate how something is distributed, divided or shared.:

They are used with singular nouns, before the noun.
Each boy, every day, neither film, either café.

Examples:

Each man will receive $100.

a. Every third morning John goes jogging.
b. He has lunch at midday each working day.
c. Neither boy was given the prize.
d. I can stay at either hotel, they are both good.