WHEN TO USE THEM: partitives are words or phrases that indicate a part or quantity of something as distinct from a whole.
FORM:
[indefinite article + single countable noun + “of”] or
[number/determiner + plural countable noun + “of”]
For example:
- a bag of popcorn (“a” is an indefinite article)
- three bags of popcorn (“three” is a number)
- several bags of popcorn (“several” is a determiner)
Some nouns cannot be used in the singular form. Use a partitive to make them plural. There are many common phrases (collocations) that often go together in English. For example…
- a pair of pants
- a pair of jeans
- a pair of glasses
There are many partitives. English students usually learn them through exposure to the language. A special type of dictionary called a “collocations dictionary” can help students find partitives easily. Learners can also type “list of partitives” in their preferred search engine to see a list of common partitives. One such list is available (please let Jamie know if this link is broken) at https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/nouns-uncountable-partitive-list.htm and here are a few examples of this variety:
- a bar of chocolate
- a cup of coffee
- a scrap of evidence
0 Comments