What Are Determiners

                   

Determiners

                   

Determiner suggests the context in which noun is used whether it is ownership, quantity or relative location. Determiners always come first in the noun phrase.  

Generally, an indefinite article (a or an) is used before singular nouns. When speaking about singular or plural nouns specifically; definite article, demonstrative pronoun, possessive pronoun or quantifier is used.

Determiners can be divided into two groups:

                   
       

Group A Determiner

                                       

                     
• Articles
• Possessives
• Demonstratives
                                           

                   
                   

1.  Articles

                   

Articles specify (or determine) which noun the speaker is referring to. A and an are indefinite articles and are used for a general noun.

                   

Examples:

                   

• A dog is a good pet.  
• An   ostrich would beat a chicken in a race.

               

In these examples, the sentence is talking about dogs or ostriches in general, meaning any dog. Note that ‘a’ is used before words that begin with consonants while ‘an’ is used before words beginning with vowel sounds.

           

On the other hand, the  is a definite article, meaning the speaker is referring to a specific noun.

                 

Examples:

                 

• We went to the best restaurant in town.
• The dog is barking too loudly.

                 

Here the speaker is referring to a particular dog and a particular restaurant. It's not a general category, but only one animal or place that's important. When your meaning is specific, use a definite article.

                 
                 

2. Demonstratives

                 

Demonstrative pronouns are also used as determiners in English. There are four of them: this, that, these and those.                    

                                   

Examples:

                 

• Do you want this piece of chicken?                      
• I don't want to go to that   movie.                      
• These black raspberries are sour.
                     
• He wanted These boys to go away.
                     
• This and   these refer to items nearby; that and those refer to items far away. In addition, this and that   are singular while these and those are plural.
             

                             
               

3.  Possessives

               

When referring to a noun that belongs to someone or something, possessive pronouns are used to show ownership. Possessive pronouns include  my, your, his, her, its, our, one’s, whose and  their.

                             

Examples:

               

               
• Where is   your car?                    
               
• The dog growled and showed its  teeth.                    
                   
• My best friend is a cat.  
                   
• Which one is his house?  
                   
• Honesty is   her  best quality.                      
                     
• It is   our secret recipe.                        
           

           

As always, the determiner comes before the noun and any modifying adjectives.

           

We cannot put two determiners from Group A together.

           

Examples:

               

               
• She is   a my friend (Wrong)                    
                   
• She is   my  friend (Correct)                    
                   
• Where is your the car? (Wrong)                    
                   
• Where is   your car? (Correct)                    
               

               
                               

Group B Determiners

               

Mostly, this category includes Quantifiers.

               

1.  Quantifiers

               

Quantifiers indicate how much or how little of the noun is discussed.

               

The following quantifiers work with countable nouns:

               

                   
• Many   trees
                   
• A few   trees
                   

• Few tree   trees

                   
• Several   trees
                   
• A   couple of trees
                   
• None of the trees
                   

                   

The following quantifiers work with un-countable nouns:

                   

                   
• not much   dancing
                   
• A little dancing
                   
• Little dancing
                   
• A bit   of dancing
                   
• A good deal of dancing
                   
• No    dancing
                   

     

The following quantifiers work with both countable and un-countable nouns:

             

                                           
• All of       the trees/dancing
                   
• Some  trees/dancing
                   
• Most of    the trees/dancing
                   
• Enough  trees/dancing
                   

• A lot of    trees/dancing

                   

• Lots of    trees/dancing

                   

• Plenty  of trees/dancing

                   
• A lack of     trees/dancing
                                   

               

Other determiners: other, such, what, only and numbers

               

Note that ‘all’ can be used with other determiners to specify which particular items are meant (i.e.   all the books in this pile). In this case, the quantifier always comes before the article or demonstrative. It is also possible to use ‘all’ alone to refer to items generally (i.e. all books on the table needs dusting)

           

               

Determiners without nouns

               

Examples:

               

                   
• Many   are called but   few are chosen.
                   
• Some  say one thing, some say another.
                   

• (many, few, some are determiners which do not need nouns)