Determiners
Category : 10th Class
Introduction: Determiners are words like my, this, his and any, etc. They are grammatically similar. They modify nouns and precede them. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.
Articles
The words o, an, and are generally called articles and sometimes classed as a separate part of speech. In function, however, they can be grouped with the demonstrative adjectives that are used to point things out rather than describe them.
Definite Article
The is called the definite article because it points out a particular object or class.
This is the book I was talking about.
The dodo bird is extinct.
Indefinite
Article A is called the indefinite article because it points out an object, but not any particular specimen.
a book, a dog, a lawn mower
The indefinite article has two forms:
(i) A is used before words beginning with a consonant sound or an aspirated h: a car, a lamb, a hope, a habit, a hotel
(ii) An is used before words beginning with a vowel sound: an ape, an image, an untruth, an honorable man
Demonstrative Determines
Demonstrative determiners are words that show which person or thing is being referred to.
This is my brother.
Here, 'this' is a demonstrative determiner.
The demonstratives in English are - this, that, these and those
Use of demonstratives
Demonstratives differ according to:
Distance: near or far
or
Number: singular or plural Here are the main distinctions:
This modifies or refers to singular nouns that are near to the speaker.
That modifies or refers to singular nouns that are far from the speaker.
These modifies or refers to plural nouns that are near to the speaker.
Those modifies or refers to plural nouns that are far from the speaker.
Possessive Determiners
Possessive determiners are - my, your, his, her, its, our and their. We use possessive adjective to describe or limit the meaning of a noun, a pronoun, or a clause. We use these words before nouns to say who something belongs to. Both possessive determiners and possessive pronouns express a relation, often the fact that someone has something or that something belongs to someone.
Subject Pronouns Possessive Adjectives
Singular I my
You your
He his
She her
It its
Plural We our
You your
They their
Numeral Determiners
Numeral determiners are a kind of numeral adjectives which can be in the following ways:
Numerals | ||
Definite | Indefinite | Distributive |
One, Two, three, first | Some, many, few, all | Each, every, either |
Second, third, both, etc. | Several | Neither |
Definite Numeral
Determiners In such cases, the exact number is stated in the sentence.
There are forty-five students in the class.
He has five books. Both Raja and Rahim are my friends.
The first boy in the second row is my brother.
Quantitative Determiners
Quantitative determiners are commonly used before abstract and mass nouns. They are words which provide information about the quantity of a noun. The list of quantitative determiners are - some, any, few, little, no, more, much, many, each, every, both, all, enough, half, little, a little, the little, whole, less, etc.
There is some water in the bottle.
There is not any juice in the jug.
We saw few students going to the school.
He has little knowledge.
There is no truth in Pakistan about Kashmir.
He has put in more effort to find a job.
Much work is yet to be done.
He has many friends.
Each of the boys has done his duty.
Every boy needs to be guided.
Both the guest and the host are honest.
All the students attended the function.
Enough has been done to save the plant.
He completed half of the work.
He has little knowledge.
Add o little sugar in the tea.
I have spent the little money I had.
The whole area is under police protection.
You devote less time to practice.
You need to login to perform this action.
You will be redirected in
3 sec