Determiners and Quantifiers: English Grammar

A determiner is a word that changes the meaning of a noun. Determiners are words that may be used before nouns to determine or change the meaning of the nouns in question. Determiners serve the same purpose as adjectives. This kind of term is also known as a tying word. It is possible to use four different sorts of determiner words in the English language. Examples include articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers. These are all words with distinct meanings. Examples of each kind will now be discussed in detail. Let us look at some of the features of Determiners.

Determiners: Characteristics

• Determiners have the power to fix a location, a person, or an object in place
• Determiners are used to categorise more than one person or object
• Determiners may be used before numbers or objects
• There are a variety of ways to use a determiner

Determiners: Classification and Examples

Types of determiners include

• A, an, and the are all examples of articles
• This, that, these, and those are examples of demonstrative adjectives

Words and phrases used before a noun to express the amount or number are known as quantifiers. There are many different kinds of quantifiers:

• First, second, both, etc., are all examples of “definite” quantifiers
• Dissimilarity: The more, the less, and the fewer
• My, your, his, her and hers, mine, hers, yours, ours, theirs are all examples of possessive pronouns 

Types of Nouns and Determiners that they are used with

• Singular countable nouns have the form of a, an, each, everyone, another, and either
• Uncountable nouns and singular countable nouns both use this and that
• With uncountable nouns/plural countable nouns, these and those are appropriate
• With uncountable nouns, the adverbs a little, a lot, a lot, a great deal, and much are all appropriate
• Uncountable and plural countable nouns alike utilise the words more, most, many, enough, and sufficient

No matter what the plural noun is, “a few,” “several,” or “many” are all acceptable determiners. It doesn’t matter what sort of noun you’re talking about; all of these words may be used with it.

Three Types of Articles

Nouns are preceded by articles. As opposed to “An,” “A” is used before nouns that begin with consonant sounds, whereas “An” is used before vowel sounds. Singular countable nouns, multiple countable nouns and uncountable nouns all utilise ‘the’ as their prefixes.

Where to use A/An as an Indefinite Article

• Before a noun that begins with a consonant sound, the letter ‘A’ is used

Example: such as a person, animal or institution 

•  When a noun begins with a vowel sound, the preposition ‘an’ is used

Example: such as an orange, an animal 

Note: We use ‘an’ with words starting with a vowel sound (orange, egg, elephant, and hour)

The Difference between A vs. An

Sound dictates the usage of ‘a’ and ‘an’. Some of the words on this list begin with a vowel, but the vowel sounds are absent. Unique articles include a one-rupee coin (a European), a unicorn, a university, So, ‘a’ is used in this case.

On the other hand, even though they begin with a consonant, the following words begin with the article “an” instead.

Example: What do you get when you cross an hour with an honest man? You get an MCA. 

The sound is the deciding factor in determining whether or not an or a will be employed here.

When to use ‘The’ as a Definite Article

Singular countable nouns, multiple countable nouns and uncountable nouns all use ‘the’ as their prefixes. Nouns that cannot be counted or do not have plural forms use ‘the’, such as ‘the sugar’. There is no plural form of sugar in English such as  ‘sugars’.

The Article ‘the’ as Determiner: Examples

Talking about someone or something that has previously been mentioned (that is when it is clear from the context which one we mean).

• When one noun stands in for the whole class

For example,

The dog is a devoted pet.

• Before the names of several natural phenomena

The Pacific Ocean and The Arabian Sea 

Rivers: such as The Yamuna River and The Thames

Canals: such as The Suez Canal, 

The Thar Desert and The Sahara Desert

Mountains: such as The Himalayan and The Satpura Ranges

• Religious and mythical literature:

such as the Puranas, the Mahabharata, and the Vedas

• When naming items that are one-of-a-kind or unique.

For instance, the Sun, the Moon, and the Pacific Ocean.

• Having a high degree of excellence.

For instance. This is by far the worst show I’ve ever seen.

• Using ordinals.

For instance, He was the first person to set foot on the lunar surface.

• Before there were languages and terms like school, college, and university, there was the church, and there was a hospital.

For instance, My uncle remains in the hospital.

Quantifiers

Quantifiers include “some,” “many,” “a lot,” and “a few.” Countable and uncountable nouns may both be used with quantifiers in positive statements, inquiries, requests, and orders.

Examples

1. The desk has a few books on it.
2. He had barely a few cents in his wallet.
3. Please tell me how much money you have.
4. This river has a lot of fish in it.
5. He has a larger circle of acquaintances than his sister does.
6. Friends, people, cups, sugar, tea, money, and advice are all examples of quantifiers that can only be used with countable nouns; however, certain other quantifiers may be used with either countable or uncountable nouns.

Conclusion

In English, there are four distinct categories of determiners. They are: articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers. The words like “the,” “my,” “this,” “some,” “twenty,” “each,” and “any” are determiners. There are many popular kinds of determiners, such as a/an/the this, that, and those. We use them in front of nouns to identify the things.