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Determiners

Determiners are a consistent stumbling block for most non-native speakers of English. But don't get discouraged! These explanations and tips, along with continued practice, can help you improve.

What are Determiners?

Determiners are a particular type of adjective. They precede a noun and add information about that noun. Some common determiners are articles, like a, an, and the; possessive adjectives, like my, your, his, her, its, our, and their; and demonstrative adjectives, like this, that, these, and those. There are other determiners as well.

What are Determiners used with?

The use of determiners is dependent on context. You must ask yourself what kinds of nouns each determiner is preceding. Determiners appear before three major types of nouns: proper nouns, count nouns, and noncount nouns.

Proper Nouns:
A proper noun names a particular person, place or thing and begins with a capital letter: July, Benedict Arnold, Tallahachee Bridge.

Count Nouns:
A count noun names something that can be made into a plural; it's countable in the literal sense: baboon/baboons, kiss/kisses, zombie/zombies.

Noncount Nouns:
A noncount noun names something that is not considered countable. These nouns do not have a plural form: hair, oil, weather. There are two main categories of noncount nouns. Note: Many noncount nouns do not fall into these categories

mass nouns: liquids: milk, beer, hairspray; natural phenomena: hail, thunder, snow; resources: petroleum, gold

abstract nouns: concepts: truth, evidence; emotions: surprise, anger; qualities: confidence, courage; traits: cleanliness, wealth

Note: Many nouns can be both count and noncount nouns.

The lonely boy ate his lunch in the janitor's room.

The lonely boy ate his lunch and left room for dessert.

What kinds of Determiners do I use?

Articles

With Proper Nouns

A or an never precedes a proper noun.
The rarely precedes a proper noun, but there are some exceptions.
- Examples: We generally use the before the names of ships (the USS Normandy), oceans (the Atlantic) , mountain ranges (the Swiss Alps), regions ( the Midwest), rivers (the Nile), bridges (the Golden Gate Bridge), monuments (the Lincoln Memorial), some buildings (the World Trade Center), and some countries (the United States, the Bahamas). There are other exceptions, so be careful!

With Singular Count Nouns

A or an precedes a singular count noun when the reader cannot identify the noun, usually because the noun hasn't been mentioned previously.
- Example: A girl in my preschool class bit a mean boy who kicked her.
  A is used before girl and mean boy because the reader has no idea which girl or which boy.

The does not precede a noncount noun that names a general category.
- Example: The biting girl should learn about peace and love.
  There is not a the in front of peace or love because they are used in a general sense.

The precedes a singular count noun when the reader can identify the noun, usually because
(1) you have mentioned it before.
- Example: A girl in my preschool class bit a mean boy who kicked her. The girl has a penchant for this and is often chided and punished.
  The is used before girl because she was mentioned in the previous sentence.
(2) you identify it immediately after you mention it
- Example: The girl who likes to bite is a peppermint fanatic.
  The is used before girl because she is defined by the phrase who likes to bite, as well as by being a peppermint fanatic.
(3) it is the only one in existence (like the sun)
- Example: The fourteen-fingered boy is a piano whiz.
  The is used before fourteen-fingered boy because he is unique.
(4) it refers to an institution or facility shared by a community
- Example: The port-o-john in the town park needed a good scrubbing.
  The is used with port-o-john and town park because they are both used by the community.

With Plural Count Nouns

A or an never precedes a plural noun. Here is a helpful hint for remembering this: Historically, a and an used to mean "one"; you don't put "one" in front of a noun that is "more than one."
The does not precede a plural noun that names a general category.
- Example: Parties are a popular activity among college freshmen.
  Parties and freshmen name general categories.
The precedes a plural noun that names specific members of a category.
- Example: The freshmen from ODU went to the toga party.
  Freshmen refers to specific freshmen and party refers to a specific party.

With Noncount Nouns

A or an never precedes a proper noun.
The precedes a noncount noun that names specific members of a category.
- Example: Green shiny apples are delicious.
  Apples names a general category of fruit.
- Example: The green shiny apples from my Grandma Dorothy's tree are delicious.
  Here, apples refers to specific apples.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, our, and their) tell to whom or what a noun belongs. They can be used with singular count nouns, plural count nouns, and noncount nouns. Keep these hints in mind:

Be careful not to confuse possessive adjectives with possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. Possessive pronouns are used like other pronouns: they take the place of a noun.
Apostrophes are not used with possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns. The possessive meaning conveyed with "'s" is already included. Notice that most of the possessive pronouns end with an "s" while most of the possessive adjectives do not.
Don't confuse the possessive adjective or possessive pronoun " its" with "it's." "It's" means "it is." One way to remember this is to think of the apostrophe in "it's" as an "i."

Demonstrative Adjectives

The demonstrative adjectives (this, that, these and those), as their name suggests, show or point out a noun.

This and that are used with singular count nouns and noncount nouns.
These and those are used with plural count nouns.

Other Determiners

There are several other determiners that you can use to tell more about a noun. With singular count nouns you can use determiners like one, any, some, every, each, either, neither, another,the other, etc. With plural count nouns you can use some, any, both, many, enough, more, most, other, the other, such, few, a few, fewer, fewest, several, all, all of the, a lot of, no, etc.. With noncount nouns you can use some, any, much, more, most, enough, other, the other, such, little, a little, less, least, all, all of the, a lot of, a large amount of, no, etc.