English The Easy Way : English Grammar : Nouns : Determiners
Determiners
What are determiners in English?
Determiners are words that are used with nouns to clarify the noun. They can clarify:
- to define something or someone
- to state the amount of people, things or other nouns
- to state possessives
- to state something or someone is specific
- to state how things or people are distributed
- to state the difference between nouns
- to state someone or something is not specific
There are different types of determiners. There type of determiner depends on the type of noun. Singular nouns always need a determiner. Plural nouns the determiner is optional. Uncountable nouns the determiner is also optional.
There are about 50 different determiners in the English language they include:
- Articles: a, an, the
- Demonstratives: this, that, these, those, which etc.
- Possessives: my, your, our, their, his, hers, whose, my friend's, our friends', etc.
- Quantifiers:few, a few, many, much, each, every, some, any etc.
- Numbers: one, two, three, twenty, forty
- Ordinals: first, second, 1st 2nd, 3rd, last, next, etc.
English The Easy Way : English Grammar : Nouns : Determiners
