ENGLISH GRAMMAR  for Spanish Speakers


2. Nouns
3. The Articles
4. Quantifying Adjectives
5. Determiners
6. Pronouns
7. Quantifiers and Indefinite pronouns

8. Auxiliary verbs
9. The verb: mood and tense
10. The passive voice
11. Anomalous or special verbs (Modal Auxiliaries)
12. The subjunctive
13. Nonfinites
14. Multi-word verbs (Verbs+particle)

15. Adverbs and adverbials
16. Prepositions
17. Conjunctions
18. The simple sentence
19. The complex sentence
20. Indirect Speech
21. Word-formation

7. QUANTIFIERS AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

1. Introduction

                They can fulfil either of the functions: adjective (quantifiers) and pronoun

 

2. Distributives

 

each

cada, cada uno

another

otro/a

every

cada, todos/as (only adj.)

other

otro/a/s

either

cualquiera [of two]; uno y otro

each other

el uno al otro [generally between two]

neither

ninguno [of two]

one another

el uno al otro [generally among more than two]

 

3. Quantifiers

 

all

 

too many

 

a little

 

whole

 

so many

 

less

 

several

 

a lot of

 

the least

 

much

 

lots of

 

a few

 

more

 

plenty of

 

few

 

most

 

a great deal of

 

fewer

 

how much

 

some

 

the fewest

 

too much

 

any

 

enough

 

so much

 

do (adj.)

 

both

 

many

 

none (pro.)

 

one

 

how many

 

little

 

 

 

 

4. Indefinite Pronouns which are compound of "some, any, every"

 

                Only as pronouns

something

 

somebody, someone

 

anything

 

anybody, anyone

 

nothing

 

nobody, no one

 

everything

 

everybody, everyone

 

 

5. Some notes of Quantifiers

 

1. Only with uncountable or mass nouns

2. Only with countable nouns

3. With both countable and uncountable nouns

ê much

ê how much

ê too much

ê so much

ê little

ê a little

ê less

ê the least

ê too little

ê so little

ê many

ê how many

ê too many

ê so many

ê few

ê fewer

ê the fewest

ê a few

ê too few

ê so few

ê several

ê both

ê enough

ê all

ê some

ê any

ê no (adj.)

ê more

ê the most

ê a lot of

ê lots of

ê plenty of

ê a great deal of

 

6. Enough

 

 

Place

after the ê adjective

              ê adverb

              ê particle

He's rich enough

Was that slowly enough?

The meat is not cooked enough

in front of ê the noun

There is enough food for everybody

 

7. Structures with "both" and "all"

                * They can be either adjectives or pronouns

                                a) as adjectives

                                               1. Place                 ê in front of the nouns à both men

                                                                                              ê before any other determiner or article à both the men

                                               2. of                 ê it's not obligatory in front of the adjective or article à both the men

                                                                              ê it's obligatory in front of pronouns them and us à both of us

                                b) as pronouns

                                               1. Subject à Both were late

                                               2. Direct Object à I'll take both / The winner takes all

                                               3. Apposition à The both liked it

                                                   Order                 ê with an ordinary verb: between the subject and the verb à They both / all liked her

                                                                                              ê with an auxiliary verb: after the auxiliary à They are both / all here

 

8. A practical summary of the basic uses of "same" and "any"

               

Some

affirmative sentences

There are some books on the shelf

interrogative sentences (requests, invitations, assumptions...)

May I have some tea?

 

Any

negative sentences

The isn't any coffee

interrogative sentences (general questions)

Are there any cigarettes?

affirmative sentences (with the meaning of cualquier

Any boy can do that?

 

9. "Some/Any" and Countable nouns and Uncountable nouns

 

Affirmative sentences

ê some + uncountable nouns in singular

ê some + countable nouns in plural

There's some sugar in the bow

There are some books on the shelf

 

 

Interrogative sentences

1. questions of a general kinds

           ê any + uncountable nouns in singular

           ê any + countable nouns in plural

2. Invitations or Requests

           ê some + uncountable nouns in singular

           ê some + countable nouns in plural

 

Is there any wine...?

Are there any glasses...?

 

May I have some coke

May I have some more forks?

Negative sentences

any + uncountable nouns in singular

any + countable nouns in plural

There isn't any beer

There aren't any knives

10. Other  values of "some"

                1. A purely indefinite value à She's sure to find some (algún) man to marry her.

                2. Restriction or contrast à Some (algunas) chairs were big (some of the ...)

                3. Approximation à There were some twenty men in the room (unos)

                4. Exclamations of irony or admiration à 'Some protection!' he said sarcastically (Vaya protección)

                5. As an adverb, with the meaning of 'un poco' à Was she drinking hard? Some, I believe.

 

11. Pronunciation of "some"

                * As pronoun: strong or stressed /svm/

                * As adjective: weak or unstressed /s¥m/

 

12. Other value of "any": Purely Indefinite

                * A purely indefinite value à Any boy can do that (cualquier)

                * As an adverb of quantity in certain idiomatic expressions à It isn't any good = It's no good

 

13. The pronunciation of "any"

                * Always /eni/

 

14. Compounds of "some, any, no"

                * What we have just said about the use of some and no is also valid for their compounds.

 

15. Notes on the distributives

                1. The distributives and the number of the verb form

                                * Either, neither, each, every always qualify singular noun, therefore, the verb is also in the singular

                                * Other can qualify a singular or plural noun

                2. A summary of the meanings of  either

                                * Cualquiera (of two) à Either dress will do

                                * Uno u otro, cada à He walked with a girl on either side

                                * The first term in the correlation either .. or à Either black or white

                                * Tampoco, with the verb in the negative à I don't like it either

                3. A summary of the meaning of neither

                                * Ninguno (of two) à Which one do you want? Neither

                                * In correlation with nor  à Neither white nor black

                                * Tampoco, with the verb in the affirmative and causing an inversion of the subject and the auxiliary verb à I don't like it. Neither do I.

                4. The difference between each and every

                                * Each: emphasises the individual separateness à Each boy got a present

                                * Every: stresses the collective element à Every boy was given a present

                5. The difference between all and every

                                * All: emphasises as whole à All the boys

                                * Every: distributive aspect à Every boy (todos y cada uno)

 

16. Other

 

As an adjective

As a pronoun

another

other

the other

another

others

the other

the others

               

The difference between:

                                * each other

                                * one another

                                               ê el uno al otro

                                               ê but some grammarians refer

                                                               ê each other to two

                                                               ê one another more than two

                                               ê nevertheless this is not always observed in spoken language

 

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