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Anooshiravan Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

both as a determiner

hi
in the sentence below:
they can both swim
I thought that a determiner (here both) should go before a noun like: both my parents or both of them.
so why is it before a verb here?
thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Hello, anooshiravan—and welcome to English Forums. so why is it before a verb here? Well, it is certainly a common word order.

— Mister Micawber

  • Hello, anooshiravan—and welcome to English Forums.
  • so why is it before a verb here?
  • Well, it is certainly a common word order.
  • Here,'both' is a pronoun, and when it is postposed as here, it assumes the position of a medial adverb.
  • Here are some more (and it happens with 'all', too): The villages have both/all been destroyed.
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3 Answers
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Hello, anooshiravan—and welcome to English Forums.
anooshiravanI thought that a determiner (here both) should go before a noun like: both my parents or both of them.so why is it before a verb here?
Well, it is certainly a common word order. Here,'both' is a pronoun, and when it is postposed as here, it assumes the position of a medial adverb.

Here are
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thank you very much Mister Micawber.
and now I have another question according to your answer, this time about medial adverbs position:
they both told us to wait OR they told us both to wait?
I think we usually put the adverbs that go in the middle of a sentence before the main verb or after the first auxiliary verb.
is the sentence that I wrote also correct?
thanks in advance.
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anooshiravanthey both told us to wait OR they told us both to wait?
They both told us to wait. - Two people told us (unknown number) to wait

They told us both to wait. - They (unknown number) told us (two people) to wait.
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