English Chapter – 7 : Determiners

Introduction: Determiners

Determiners are those words that are prefixed before nouns to determine their meaning.
They can be divided into the following types:

Articles- a, an, the
Demonstratives– this, that, these, those
Possessives– my, your, our, his, her, its, their
Indefinite Adjectives– some, any, much, many, little, few, less
Others- all, each, every, both, neither, either, other, another, enough, most, several, one, two, etc.

Articles

The two indefinite articles in the English language are ‘a’ and ‘an’.
The definite article in the English language is ‘the’. For indefinite articles, you can use either of them depending upon the sound of the first letter of the next word.
This is done for pronunciation reasons.

Use of ‘a’ takes place in the following instances

In places where the following word starts with a consonant sound, the determiner ‘a’ is used.
Also, ‘a’ is used where the following word is a singular countable noun.
The determiner ‘an’ also does the same work as ‘a’ but is used in the following instances –places where the following word is a singular countable noun and starts with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u).
‘The’ is mostly used before both singular and plural nouns. Its main function of use is that it is used to specify a person, place or thing.

Uses of Articles with Rules and Examples:

‘a’ and ‘an’ (Indefinite Determiners) are used before the following-

1) A singular countable noun which is being mentioned for the first time. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

I have never seen a gun.
I saw a sports bike at the store today.

2) A singular countable noun or adjective beginning with a consonant sound. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

I ate a banana.
I saw a tall girl today.

3) A singular, countable noun which is an example of a class of things. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

A pet needs love. (Class of things is pets)
A father deserves to be respected by his children.

4) The noun to express a quantity. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

I need a dozen bananas.
I need to buy a couple of books.

5) The units of price, speed, ratio, weight etc. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

This bike gives 35 kilometers a liter
You can run a mile in just 5 minutes.

6) Certain numbers or monetary units. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

I want to earn a billion dollars by the age of 40.
Can you lend me a hundred rupees?

7) The expression of frequency. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

Put these ear drops twice a day.
Wash your face three times a day in summer.

8) Certain exclamatory expressions. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

What a beautiful morning!
What a cute dog!

Few Important rules to remember about the use of indefinite determiners-

A) The spelling of the word following the determiner is not important, only the sound is important. Few words given below start with vowel letters but do not have vowel sounds. So the determiner ‘a’ is attached to them.

For example: A union, A one rupee coin, etc

B) There are a few words that start with consonant letters but have vowel sounds. They are preceded by the determiner ‘an’.

For example: An honest man, An honour

C) Indefinite determiners are mostly prefixed before the noun that does not refer to any particular person, place or thing.

For example: A cat, a boy, an hour

D) Indefinite determiners can be used before uncountable nouns if the noun is used in a particular sense.

For example: I always have tea after my lunch. She is a great pianist.

E) An indefinite determiner can be attached before the adjective if the adjective is followed by a countable noun.

For example: It is a red colored T-shirt. He is a hard working man.

The’ (Definite Determiners) is used before the following-

1) A singular noun when it refers to a particular class or group. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

The luxury car is a rich man’s vehicle
My brother has joined the NDA

2) Names of rivers, ranges of mountains, gulfs, seas, oceans, groups, islands, ships, etc.

The Jamuna river
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Titanic
The Shivalik range of mountains.

3) Countries with plural names.

The Philippines
The Maldives

4) Books of religion (Religious books).

The Shreemad Bhagavad Gita
The Holy Quran

5) Names of hotels, museums, and certain building names

The Oberoi group of Hotels
The Burj Khalifa.

6) Last names of families in the plural.

The Madans
The Malhotras

7) Names of newspapers and magazines.

The Top Gear
The Hindustan Times

8) Superlatives of adjectives.

The best boy in the class.
The tallest building in the world.

9) Descriptive adjectives referring to a whole group or class.

The working class.
The middle class.

10) The names of races and communities.

The Hindu
The Christian

11) Few expressions of the English language.

All the colleagues.
Both the sisters.

Few Places where the definite determiner ‘The’ should not be used are as follows

‘The’ should not be used before abstract nouns, plural nouns, proper nouns, names of meals, colors, materials when they are being used in general sense.
They should not be used before the name of games.
The expression like all day, by road, by air.

Demonstratives

The demonstrative determiners in the English language are this, that, these, those.

A) The demonstrative determiner ‘That’ (Plural- Those) is used to avoid repetition of a preceding noun. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

My shorts are better than those of my brother.
Our defense academies are better than those of Afghanistan.

B) The demonstrative determiner ‘This (Plural- These)’ is used to refer to a person/ persons or thing/ things near to the speaker. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

This is the best coffee I have had.
These magazines are very good.

C) The demonstrative determiner ‘That (Plural- Those)’ refers to a person/ persons or thing/ things far from the speaker. The rule can be understood with the help of the following example sentences –

Get that dog out of the house.
Throw away those shoes in the garbage

Possessives

The possessive determiners in the English language are my, your, our, his, her, its, their. These are used to show or determine the ownership of a certain thing.