Predeterminers Such - What - Rather - Quite

Predeterminers are words placed before determiners in a sentence, i.e. they modify the determiner.

What a great day!

Predeterminers are usually placed before an indefinite article + adjective + noun to express an opinion about the noun they modify.

Predeterminers can be classified into the following categories:

• multipliers (twice, three times) -- are used to express more than the specified amount.

My brothers makes twice my annual salary

I try to call my parents at least three times a week

• fractions (half, one-eighth) -- are used to express a fraction of an amount.

The bus will arrive in half an hour. We've got plenty of time

I ate one-third of the pizza we cooked last night

• intensifiers (such, what, quite, rather) -- are used to express surprise, disappointment, pleasure, or other emotions.

Such and what are used to express surprise or other emotions.

Alice is such a kind person!

What a fantastic meal it is!

Quite and rather refer to the degree of a particular quality as expressed by the adjective that modfies the noun. They can express disappointment, pleasure, or other emotions depending on the adjective.

Note that in British English, rather is used as a predeterminer, while in American English it is only used as an adverb.

Actually, it was quite a nice meal. I am surprised

He's always been rather a difficult child (BrE)

• other pre-determiners such as all, both do not fall into the other groups. They are used to express the entire amount.

Jake broke both his legs when hiking

How did you manage to real all these books in one week?

Guided Practice#

• Their meals/twice/the size of ours/to be.

• Kim/a bottle of/to drink/wine/half/yesterday.

• It was .................... a crazy adventure!
• .................... a delightful evening!

• The food there is usually .................... good.
• It was .................... dull in there, so I decided to head home.

• .................... my friends threw a surprise b-day party for me!

Short Story using Predeterminers#

–Let me tell you about our trip to Germany. You know that I'm quite good at German but I felt rather hopeless at first - I couldn't understand anyone! Certainly it did not help that we were in Bavaria.

–Yeah, I've heard stories about the accent there! What a challenge!

–And I would ask someone three times before understanding what they said. I felt quite stupid but it got better with time. All people were very kind to us. In the end we even managed to make friends with Adam and Martha from there. They are such a nice couple!

Independent Practice#

Underline the correct predeterminer in the following sentences.

1. When I was a kid, I would brush my teeth one time/once a day.

2. Both/Half my brothers live in Europe.

3. What/Once a beautiful Sunday morning!

4. I make all/twice Tom's salary.

5. I never want to see these two/both again.

Restore the word order in the following sentences.

1. It/such/to be/yesterday/a roller coaster of emotions!

2. Look/these/at/balloons/all!

3. Add/of sugar/one-third/to the mix/a cup.

4. I/to see/twice/to try/a year/my dentist.

5. It/to be/him/in a state like this/sad/rather/to see.