What is Determiner?
A
determiner comes at the beginning of the noun phrase to introduce that
noun and determine whether that noun is general or specific. In other words, it
gives clarifying and quantifying information. Look at the example below:
- This is my house.
- That is the dog
I am looking for.
- That house is mine.
- I have five pens.
- Many students are here.
- Some nice gifts I received
yesterday.
- I need a lot of experience.
Determiners and adjectives have both similarities and dissimilarities. They are similar in the sense that both of them modify or give extra information about nouns. They are different from each other in the sense that while determiners, sitting before nouns, introduce these nouns to the audience, adjectives provide further details about nouns. Look at the diagram below and see the classification of determiners.
Types of Determiner:
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| Arup Roy, Lecturer in English Language & Literature, Kanchkura University College, Uttarkhan, Airport, Dhaka |
You can watch the video by following the link below:
1.
Article
There
are three articles--a, an, and the--which define whether a noun is specific or
unspecific.
- The Padma is the biggest
river in our country.
Through
the usage of the article "the", I am mentioning a specific river and it
is the Padma.
- A dog is a faithful
animal.
- Writing an article requires
hard labor.
Here, articles "a" and "an" create a general statement. Here, we, in general, understand that any dog is faithful, and writing an article is difficult.
2. Demonstrative
A demonstrative determiner is a word which we use to specifically refer to someone/more than one
or something/few things which are near or far from us. This, these,
that, and those are demonstrative determiners.
- This building is mine.
- That car is yours.
- These cars are made in Japan.
- Those cars are made in China.
3. Distributive
Distributive
determiners indicate a group or every member in the group. "Each", "every", "either", "neither", "half", "both", "all" are distributive determiners. "Each" and "every" talk
about the individual members of a group. "All" collectively
talk about the whole group. "Half" is used to talk about the
group or quantity equally divided into two parts. When we want to refer to a group
of two, we use "either" and "neither" and "both".
- Each student in this class is
meritorious.
- Each of the students is
brilliant.
- Every student in this class is
meritorious.
- All members are happy.
- All of the students were in the
class.
- Half of the students have
passed the exam.
- I gave him half of the
mango.
- Both my students are
meritorious.
- Both boys are
meritorious.
- Both the boys are meritorious.
- Both of the boys are
meritorious.
- Either student is curious.
- Either of the students is
curious.
- Neither boy is sad.
- Neither of the boys is
sad.
4.
Interrogative
To formulate direct or indirect questions we use interrogative
determiners. There are three interrogative determiners in English. They are
what, which, and whose.
- Which university are you
studying at?
- What food do you want?
- What job do you do?
- Whose pen is it?
5.
Intensifier
Some
adverbs and adverbial phrases strengthen or weaken the meaning of other words.
Some common intensifiers are "extremely", "very",
"incredibly", "awfully", "dreadfully",
"terribly" etc.
- I am extremely happy.
- She is very beautiful.
- I strongly oppose it.
- They are really modern.
- She is pretty intelligent.
- You are quite happy.
- This place is rather chaotic.
- This topic is fairly interesting.
- They are absolutely smart.
- You are so smart.
6.
Quantifier
A quantifier sits before a noun and expresses the object's quantity, be it small (a few, a little, a bit), large (many, much, a lot), or undefined quantity (any, some).
"Few", "a few", "fewer", "many", "not
many", "several", "both", "a couple of", "each" are
used with countable
noun.
They are used with plural noun except each.
- I have many friends.
- I have a few friends.
- Not many tourists have visited
our country.
- Not many people in our country
know the importance of education.
- Both players have contributed a
lot.
- I know each student of this
college.
"Much", "less", "little", "a little", "a bit" of is used with an uncountable
noun.
- Not much milk is in the glass.
- Poor people need a bit of support
from the rich and government.
- There is a little milk in the
glass.
- I can finish my work in less
time.
"Lot
of", "lots of", "plenty of", "a lack of", "enough", "no", "some", "all" can be used with
both countable and uncountable noun.
- All players are from South Asia.
- All milk has been brought from
Sylhet.
- I have enough pens.
- I have enough experience.
- Lots of experience is required
for the job.
- I need a lot of apple juice.
- I need a lot of
experience.
- Lots of people are working
there.
- Writing gives me lots of fun.
7.
Numerals
When
a numeral, be it cardinal (one, two, three, etc.), ordinal (first, second, third, etc.) multiplicative (single, double, triple, etc.) or fraction (half, one-third, etc.) sits before a noun, it becomes numeral determiner.
- I have three cars. (cardinal)
- I need eleven players.
(cardinal)
- He is the first boy in the
class. (ordinal)
- It is our third marriage
anniversary. (ordinal)
- Mushfique made a double century
yesterday. (multiplicative)
- Sehwag has two triple
centuries. (multiplicative)
- Half of my salary is spent on
house rent. (fraction)
- One-third of my salary is spent
on meals and buying books. (fraction)
- He earns double his salary. (multiplicative)
Usage
Determiners
come before an adjective (a beautiful lady) or only noun (a lady;
many people) to form a noun phrase. We cannot use more than one main determiner
side by side. The main determiners are article, demonstrative and possessive. So,
in the presence of an article, you cannot use possessive; in the presence of possessive, you cannot use an article. Similarly, in the presence of demonstrative,
you cannot use an article or possessive. They simply mutually exclude each
other.
Some
determiners function as pre-determiners. They sit before the main determiner and
you can use only one pre-determiner.
Post-determiner comes after main/central determiner. You can use more than one post-determiner.
Proper
Order of Determiners
in
a Noun Phrase
You can use up to three determiners in a noun phrase. When you go to use more than one determiner, you have to follow the following rules.
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We can
choose |
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One
pre-determiner |
One main
determiner |
one or
more than one post-determiners |
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Quantifier, |
Intensifier, |
Multiplier, |
Fraction |
Demonstrative |
Distributive |
Possessive |
Article |
Interrogative |
ordinals |
quantifiers,
cardinals, general ordinals) |
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both, all |
what,
such, so, really, quite, pretty, absolutely, fairly, so,
rather, strongly |
twice,
double, three times, five times |
half,
one-tenth |
this,
these, that, those |
each,
every, either, neither, |
my, our,
your, his, her, its, their |
a, an, the |
what,
which, whose |
first,
second, third, next, last, final |
one, two,
three, single, double, triple, more, most, many, much, few, little |
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What |
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a |
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next |
few |
moments |
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five times |
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my |
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income |
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both |
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our |
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students |
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the |
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most |
interesting
matter |
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a |
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triple
century |
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an |
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other |
story |
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the |
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last |
three |
pages |
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those |
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last |
three |
pages |
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his |
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last |
triple |
century |
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many |
students |
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much |
experience |
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You can watch the video on the proper order of determiners:
English Alphabet and Speech Sound