Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Verbs: 1
- Chapter 2 Verbs: 2
- Chapter 3 Tabular treament of verbs
- Chapter 4 Verb list
- Chapter 5 Nouns and adjectives
- Chapter 6 Pronouns
- Chapter 7 Determiners
- Chapter 8 Prepositions
- Chapter 9 Adverbs and adverbial expressions
- Chapter 10 Negation
- Chapter 11 Numerals
- Chapter 12 Sentences and clauses
- Key to exercises
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - Determiners
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Verbs: 1
- Chapter 2 Verbs: 2
- Chapter 3 Tabular treament of verbs
- Chapter 4 Verb list
- Chapter 5 Nouns and adjectives
- Chapter 6 Pronouns
- Chapter 7 Determiners
- Chapter 8 Prepositions
- Chapter 9 Adverbs and adverbial expressions
- Chapter 10 Negation
- Chapter 11 Numerals
- Chapter 12 Sentences and clauses
- Key to exercises
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Determiners
Determiners are those syntactic items which precede and qualify a noun.
They comprise the definite (le, la, les), indefinite (un, une, des) and partitive (du, de la, des) articles, the demonstrative adjectives (ce, cet, cette, ces), the possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mes, ton, son, notre, votre, leur, etc).
The articles
The three articles
The definite article corresponds, mostly, to English the and basically refers to something or somebody that has already been or is implicitly identified and specified.
Elle donne à LA tournée électorale un air de psychothérapie = she brings an atmosphere of psychotherapy to the electoral trail
Tunisie – LE rêve méditerranéen = Tunisia – the Mediterranean dream
Longtemps proposés comme une panacée AUX troubles de LA ménopause, LES traitements hormonaux sont mis sous surveillance = for a long time seen as a panacea for the problems of the menopause, hormonal treatment is being investigated
Cent ans en bleu – tous LES matches, tous LES joueurs, LES stars, LES épopées, LES capitaines, LES sélectionneurs DU foot français = a hundred years in blue – all the matches, all the players, the stars, the legends, the captains, the selectors of French football
The indefinite article corresponds, mostly, to English a, an, some, and basically refers to something or someone that has not yet been identified or specified; it introduces a new, countable noun into a conversation or piece of writing –
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- Information
- A Student Grammar of French , pp. 195 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006