Determiners. That's a big scary word.
In short, they refer to the family of words and phrases that come before nouns in English.
No matter what your background is, they are a tricky bunch of words to deal with despite your first language. Latin-based languages typically have articles, which are a type of determiner, (e.g. el and la in Spanish) like in English, but the rules why we use them are different. Many Asian languages, for example Japanese, have no articles at all. This presents an entirely different problem from the learner's perspective.
Basically, every noun in English needs to have a determiner before it.
If there isn't one, then one of the determiner rules will explain this.
There are four types of determiners in English:
1. Possessive Pronouns
These indicate that the following noun belongs to someone or something. It talks about possession or ownership.
These include: my, your, his, her, their, our, its and one's.
Remember:
my, your, his, her, its and one's refer to singular people or things
their and our refer to plural people
his is masculine, her is feminine and its is gender neutral
one's is typically formal and not common in daily language
My book is more expensive than her book.
Their apartment is much smaller than our one.
The company really looks after its employees.
It is important to look after one's health.
2. Demonstrative Pronouns
These indicate which person or thing we are talking about. They essentially point to that person or thing so the listener knows who or what is being spoken about.
These include: this, these, that, those.
Remember:
this and these refer to people or things that are close to the speaker
that and those refer to people or things that far from the speaker
this and that refer to single people or things
these and those refer to plural people or things
Look at those birds over there. They're beautiful. But these ones right here, not so much.
3. Quantifiers
These indicate how many people or things we are talking about.
These include many, some, a few, a lot of, either, all etc.
There are many quantifiers in English and can be tricky to use. We will explore these in a separate lesson.
Several youths were seen exiting the premises. None of them have yet to be apprehended.
All visitors will need to present two pieces of identification.
Those with neither will not be allowed in.
4. Articles
There are four articles: a, an, the and nothing (also known as the Zero Article). We basically use these when we don't use the other 3 determiners above.
For more information, see the next lesson on Articles.
The television is a widely-used appliance.
(no article) Mont Blanc is located within the Alps in Europe.
I bought a new car yesterday and the seats are so comfortable.
Final Points
1. Don't forget your determiner
In most cases, you only need one. In some cases, two can be used together.
Her many cats are really friendly. (possessive pronoun + quantifier)
Those two dogs look like they are about to fight. (demonstrative pronoun + quantifier)
Make sure to put the quantifier after the possessive or demonstrative pronoun. We do not use articles with other determiners.
2. Which determiner do I use?
Many English language tests have a grammar-based gap-fill styled task. If you are presented with a GAP + NOUN question, you should strongly consider a determiner.
To know which determiner to use, ask yourself the following questions.
Is the sentence containing the GAP + NOUN...
talking about possession or ownership? then use a possessive pronoun (e.g. my, your, his...)
pointing at or referring to somebody or something? then use a demonstrative pronoun (e.g. this, these...)
talking about how many? then use a quantifier (e.g. many, a few, some etc...)
If it isn't 1, 2 or 3, then use an article.
Practice
Read the following text and write one word only in each gap. (hint: each answer will be a determiner)
I remember my final day of school. I was (1)_____ relieved that the thirteen years of schooling was finally over, and somewhat scared of what would happen tomorrow. There would be (2)_____ more uniform, as I had gone to (3)_____ religious private school, and obligatory school sports, which I had been terrible at, would come to an end. (4)_____ very last day of school was but a large, pompous gathering of (5)_____ student and teacher in the city’s grand opera house. It was a showcase of (6)_____ finest students receiving (7)_____ end-of-year awards and receiving what was supposed to be an inspiring speech by perhaps a has-been of the school almost half a century ago. In (8)_____ case, it was a successful entrepreneur who had made (9)_____ millions from the internet boom. I guess having millions of dollars was quite inspiring, but I couldn’t help but imagine his wealthy parents combined with being in the right time and place contributed to (10)_____ man’s success. I have (11)_____ memory of what else happened, but I remember thinking, ‘’no more homework, no more essays.’’ (12)_____ couldn’t have been further from the truth. Only two months later had I started university, and the endless readings and essays began again.
Answers:
both (QUANTIFIER referring to both relieved and scared. An adverb like 'very'could work here too, but the instructions said determiners only)
no (QUANTIFIER)
a (ARTICLE meaning one or mentioning sth for the first time)
The (ARTICLE referring to sth specific, 'last' could also act as a superlative adjective too)
every (QUANTIFIER meaning all. We use 'every' + singular noun; or 'all' + plural noun)
the (ARTICLE before a superlative adjective)
their (POSSESSIVE PRONOUN the awards belong to the students)
my (POSSESSIVE PRONOUN in a fixed expression 'in my case')
his (POSSESSIVE PRONOUN the millions belong to the entrepreneur)
the (ARTICLE referring to the man or entrepreneur a second or further time)
little (QUANTIFIER referring to a small amount of the uncountable noun 'memory')
This (DEMONSTRATIVE meaning 'this situation/expression' which refers to the previous clause)
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