Gramática del inglés

Week 5: Determiners and Pronouns

Exercise 1: Classifying determiners

 Complete the texts by inserting an article (the, a or an) or another determiner (e.g.
any, his, my).
 Where the zero article occurs at the beginning of a noun phrase, you don't need to
insert anything. But for clarity, mark the zero article with the zero symbol 0.
 Hint: The original text used seven occurrences of the, one occurrence of a, one
occurrence of an, nine occurrences of the zero article, and one occurrence of their.

When .................. unexpected appears to be all part of ................... plan .................... Alan
Hutchinson reports on .................... behind- .................... -scenes organisation for yesterday's
visit to .................... Edinburgh by .................... Prince Charles. .................... Police motorcycles
rewed into .................... action and .................... strategically-placed plain clothes officers
exchanged .................... last minute information over .................... walkie-talkies. But just
as .................... security net began to tighten in .................... grounds of .................... Palace
of .................... Holyrood House in .................... Edinburgh yesterday .................... group
of .................... Japanese tourists made .................... unscheduled appearance.

Exercise 2: Types of pronouns

There are seven major categories of pronouns: personal, reflexive, possessive, reciprocal,
demonstrative, indefinite, and other.
 Underline the pronouns in the following pieces of conversation.
 Identify the type of each pronoun.
 If possible, identify the reference of each pronoun. If it is not possible, identify the
reference as 'unclear'. The first is an example.

0. I bought two new containers. They're out in the garage. I: personal nominative
pronoun, refers to the speaker; they: personal nominative pronun, refers to the
containers.

1. A: That's all I needed to do.

B: Yeah, it was painless. Somebody left their keys. Those aren't yours?
A: Not mine. Don’t know whose those are.

2. A: Do you have papers?

B: I have none. I left mine with Dave.
Exercise 3: possessive pronoun or possessive determiner?

1. Whose bike is this? Is it really him / his?

2. Is he your / yours teacher?
3. Hey Ron! This is not our / ours car. Our / Ours is red.
4. Lisa broke her / hers left leg.
5. This is mine / my house, where's theirs / them?
6. Is this Emily's room? – Yes, it's her / hers.
7. I lost my / mine pen in the library. Can I have one of your / yours?
8. Stop! – These sweets are all mine / my.
9. Did you forget to do your / yours homework yesterday? – No I didn't. I did my / mine
homework.
10. Are these really you / your shoes? – Yes, these are my / mine shoes. – They are not
your / yours.

Exercise 4: think of the correct dterminer or pronoun to complete the sentences.

1. My name is Steve. This is _______ sister Susan.

2. This old woman often talks to _________ when she is all alone.
3. My sister has got a black dog. _________ name is Rex.
4. I hurt _________ when I was fixing my car and I needed to visit a doctor.
5. We prepared the dinner _________. Help yourself.
6. He has some interesting computer games. This one is _________ favourite.
7. She lives with _________ grandparents in this small village.
8. A friend of _________ works in Warsaw. He teaches English.
9. The town _________ was so small that it only had two shops.
10. Tom and Robert ate _________ dinner and went to the cinema.
11. We will visit _________ friends when we go to Spain.
12. My hobby is tennis. What's _________?
13. He blames _________ for the accident.

Exercise 5: nouns, determiners and pronouns

In the following activities, underline the nouns.

 Identify the different types of pronouns and analyse them.
 Identify the different types of determiners and analyse them.
 The first line has been done as an example.

1. The project which is evaluated in this report is in many ways a sign of the times. It
reflects a number of trends which are clearly visible in the organisation of education in
the UK. The: determiner, definite article; this: demonstrative determiner; many:
quantifying determiner; a: determiner, indefinite article; the: determiner, definite
article.

2. The purpose of a pedagogical grammar is to teach the student to speak the language.
This differentiates it both from a descriptlve grammar and from a primer. Although a
descriptive grammar gives detailed coverage of the facts about a language, it is not
written in a form which can be used directly to acquire speaking control of the
language.

3. [Talking about Christmas presents:]

A: Yeah, I brought a big suitcase to carry your stuff for Christmas in.
B: Now who is this to?
A: That one is to Olaf.
B: Who is it from.
A: I think that is from Elsa.