Rules about the order of determiners in a noun phrase


There are rules about the order of determiners in a noun phrase.

1. It's possible to have NO determiner: John likes dogs. People breathe air. Wine is alcohol. This is the so-called "zero determiner", and is mainly possible with proper nouns (i.e. names), plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns.

2. All determiners, when present, come at the BEGINNING of a noun phrase (before any adjectives): the big black dog / my favourite car

3. If you have a "main determiner", you can have only ONE. The main determiners are:
articles: a/an, the
demonstratives: this/that, these/those
possessives: my/your/his etc

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