English The Easy Way
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English Grammar
What are determiners?
Determiners are used with nouns to clarify the noun. They are used:
- to define something or someone
- The girl in the red hat.
- The dog with the long tail.
- to state the amount of people, things or other nouns
- There are four people in the room.
- There are a lot of toys on the floor.
- to state possession
- I like my car.
- That is my sisters new dress.
- to state something or someone is specific
- I want the blue pen. I do not want the black pen.
- We live in the big house at the end of the block.
- to state how things or people are distributed
- The dogs each get two cups of food.
- There are more people that live in the city.
- to state the difference between nouns
- Do you want the green car or the white car?
- Do you want the brown dog or the black dog?
- to state someone or something is not specific
- I need a blue pen. I do not care which blue pen.
- I want some cake. I do not care which cake.
The type of determiner used depends on the type of noun.
- Singular Nouns - always needs 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.