Determiners

Determiners are words that introduce a noun and provide some information about it (but do NOT describe it).

Examples: the ball, his son, five cats, more cars.

How do we identify a determiner?

If a word can appear here _______, it is a determiner:

1. ________ any common noun

Examples:

The thing, his things, five things, some things, many things, a thing, several things, few things, each thing, those things, their things, etc.

Note: some determiners, like “much”, may only introduce noncount nouns.

There are four types of determiners:

Articles Possessives

Demonstratives Quantifiers

Articles

There are only three articles in English:

The, a, an

“the” is called the Definite Article:

It normally introduces a noun that is familiar to the listener. Example: The earth is round.

“the” may introduce either a singular or a plural noun.

“a” or “an” are called the Indefinite Article:

“a” or “an” normally introduce a noun that is not yet familiar to the listener. Example: I saw a new movie.

“a” or “an” may only introduce a singular noun.

What is the difference between “a” and “an”?

“a” precedes words that start with a consonant sound.

Examples: a table, a chair,

and also… a eulogy

“an” precedes words that start with a vowel sound.

Examples: an apple, an umbrella,

and also… an hour

Demonstratives

Demonstratives are words that are used to point at someone or something (whether it’s concrete or abstract).

Examples: that book; this time; these ideas; those chairs

There are only four demonstratives in English:

Singular Demonstratives:

This That

Plural Demonstratives:

These Those

In order to be called a DETERMINER, a demonstrative MUST be followed by a noun-

phrase:

1. I like this room. “this” is a determiner in sentence (1).

2. I like this. “this” is NOT a determiner in sentence (2).

How do we know? Because determiners need to precede noun-phrases! In sentence (2) no noun-phrase follows the word “this”

Is the underlined word a determiner?

1. John likes that movie. 2. That is the best.3. That guy is nice. 4. John thinks that apples are tasty.

“that” in (4) is NOT a determiner, because it is not used to point at apples!

PossessivesPossessives are words that usually indicate possession or belonging of a noun.

Examples: his birthday, Sam’s book, her idea, New York’s subway

There are two kinds of possessives:

1. possessive determiner pronouns

2. possessive determiner proper nouns

Possessive Pronouns

There are only seven possessive determiner pronouns:

my; your; his ; her ; its ; our ; their

Note: -The difference between its and it’s.-The difference between “their”, “there” and “they’re”.

In order to be called a DETERMINER, a possessive pronoun MUST be followed by a noun-phrase:

1. His essay was the best. “His” is a determiner in sentence (1).

2. His was the best essay. “His” is NOT a determiner in sentence (2).

How do we know? Because determiners need to precede noun-phrases! In sentence (2) no noun-phrase follows the word “his”.

Another way to test if a possessive pronoun is a determiner or not:

Replace “his” with “her”, and see if the sentence is grammatical:

1. His essay was the best. Her essay was the best.

2. His was the best exam. *Her was the best exam.

Since in (2) the Test Sentence gets a *, “his” in (2) is NOT a determiner.

Possessive Proper Nouns

A proper noun with apostrophe ‘s is a “possessive proper noun”

Examples:

Mary’s car, CUNY’s students, Mr. Smith’s wife

(Note: These are Determiners, and NOT proper nouns).

Quantifiers

Quantifiers are words that indicate the quantity or amount of a noun. Examples: three pencils; all countries; some books; little time; each story.Common Quantifiers: All, any, both, each, either, enough, every, few, little, most, much, neither, no, several, some, any number (e.g. five, twelve, etc.)

To conclude

The Determiners are:

• Articles • Demonstratives• Possessives • Quantifiers

Test for Nouns- RevisitedThe ________His/her ________One/two _________

Now we can generalize our three tests:

Any determiner ______________

If a word can appear immediately following a determiner and the result is a grammatical phrase, then that word is a noun.

Identify the determiners and say what kind of determiner it is:

1. Many New Yorkers spend the winter in Florida.

2. His grandmother came to the U.S. on a boat.

3. Jerry is an accomplished pianist who plays in the

best concert halls

4. My son has outgrown those shoes.

5. We bought these gifts in that store.

6. Those people should be ashamed of themselves.

7. Last night, my son and his girlfriend picked up their

theatre tickets

1. Delta’s pilots received a well-deserved salary raise.2. Janet’s biggest fear is that her car would break down on the highway 3. A basic principle of investing is that you don’t put all

your money in one basket.

4. Neither team was able to score a goal at the game.

5. The hurricane broke seven windows in the basement

6. Do you have any idea how to solve this problem?

7. There are several reasons for my absence yesterday.

Homework

ALL the exercises of unit 3 – Determiners.