Pre-Specifiers

Specifying things is an intersting topic on linguistics., let's take a look on the Pre-Specifiers!

Note: this is the first post of the Brazilian Nominal Phrases series, check our first post about Nominal Phrases to be on track!

Pre-Specifiers are the first words in the Nominal Phrase order as we discussed before. Their function, as well as the other specifiers, is to specify the nucleus of the nominal phrase, in this case on two distinct ways. There are just two words that can be in this position: Todo and Ambos. Let’s read about each one!

 

• 1-       Todo / Toda / Todos / Todas

 

This word can be used on three ways: as a pre-specifier (the point of this class, known as predeterminer on English grammar), as a noun-like pronoun (a nominal phrase nucleus) or as an adjective (in this case as a complement of the nominal phrase). This property is what causes it to have a lot of freedom when it comes to placement, being able even be outside the sentence. Let’s see some examples!

 

Todos os carros estavam sujos. / All the cars were dirty.

O carro todo estava sujo. / The whole car was dirty.

Todo o carro estava sujo. / All the car was dirty.

Todas as meninas gostaram do filme. / All the girls liked the movie.

As meninas gostaram do filme, todas elas. / The girls liked the movie, all of them.

Todos estavam de acordo. / All of them agreed. (as a noun-like pronoun / nominal phrase nucleus)

 

For my personal experience, it looks like when placed after the nucleus, the word “todo” seems to act and feel like an adjective, that is why when translated it becomes “whole” or “entire”. It is important to say that on all functions and positions, the meaning keeps the same: all, whole or entire.

Another important point of this word is that it changes depending on the nucleus it refers to. Could you spot the differences on how the nucleus’ (in bold) gender and number affect the word “todo”? The following table shows us how this works:

 

Table 1 – The Variants of the Word “Todo”

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	Todo	Toda
Plural	Todos	Todas

 

 

• 2-       Ambos / Ambas

 

It means “both” and has two functions: a pre-specifier (the focus of this class) and a noun-like pronoun (a nominal phrase nucleus). This word is always plural and only refer to two units of the nucleus. It only varies between masculine (ambos) or feminine (ambas) and it never goes with the word “Todo” and its variants. Let’s take a look on some examples.

 

Ambos os pacotes contém a mesma quantidade de papel. / Both the packages contain the same quantity of paper.

Ambas as casas são bonitas. / Both houses are beauty.

Ambos sabiam disso. / Both knew that. (as a noun-like pronoun / nominal phrase nucleus)

Also, there is a more informal way to say this word: Os dois, As duas (something like "The two of them").