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A demonstrative determiner modifies a noun: This apple is good. I like those houses. A demonstrative pronoun stands on its own, replacing rather than modifying a noun: This is good. I like those. There are six common demonstrative pronouns in English: this, that, these, those, none, and neither. [13]
Adjective phrases containing complements after the adjective cannot normally be used as attributive adjectives before a noun. Sometimes they are used attributively after the noun , as in a woman proud of being a midwife (where they may be converted into relative clauses: a woman who is proud of being a midwife ), but it is wrong to say * a ...
Adjectives and the demonstrative and interrogative pronouns all have instrumental forms. Adverbs are commonly formed in Old English by adding -e to the adjective, which is the adjective's instrumental case.
The main similarity between adjectives and determiners is that they can both appear immediately before nouns (e.g., many/happy people). The key difference between adjectives and determiners in English is that adjectives cannot function as determinatives.
Although English pronouns can have subject and object forms (he/him, she/her), nouns show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive distinction (e.g. chair, chairs, chair's, chairs'); there is no manifest difference in the form of chair between "The chair is here." (subject) and "I own the chair."
The English pronouns form a relatively small category of words in Modern English whose primary semantic function is that of a pro-form for a noun phrase. [1] Traditional grammars consider them to be a distinct part of speech, while most modern grammars see them as a subcategory of noun, contrasting with common and proper nouns.
English adjectives can take clauses, preposition phrases, and noun phrases as complements. Clause complements in adjective phrases can be either finite or nonfinite. Finite clause complements can be declarative (e.g., very pleased that I had bought his book) or interrogative (e.g., not sure whether I want to keep reading).
In contrast, verbs/adjectives do not co-occur with the copula. Mai cao. "Mai is tall." The adjective cao (as in the sentence above) does not require a preceding copula, and thus the sentence *Mai là cao is ill-formed. The noun category can be further subdivided into different noun classes according to semantic and syntactic criteria.