Determiners
Determiners are words placed before nouns to limit or "determine" their meaning — they tell us which one, whose, how many or how much. Unlike adjectives, a determiner always comes before any adjectives: the two beautiful red roses.
Kinds of Determiners
| Kind | Determiners | Example |
|---|
| Articles | a, an, the | An hour, the sun |
| Demonstratives | this, that, these, those | These mangoes are ripe. |
| Possessives | my, our, your, his, her, its, their | Their house is big. |
| Quantifiers | some, any, much, many, little, few, a lot of, enough, all, several | Many students passed. |
| Numerals | one, two…; first, second… | The first prize |
| Distributives | each, every, either, neither | Each child got a gift. |
| Interrogatives | what, which, whose | Which book do you want? |
Articles
A / An (Indefinite)
- a before consonant sounds: a book, a university, a one-rupee coin, a European.
- an before vowel sounds: an apple, an hour, an honest man, an M.P., an umbrella.
- Used for something mentioned for the first time, or meaning "one/any": I saw a dog.
The (Definite)
- For a particular or already-mentioned noun: The dog was barking.
- Before unique objects (the sun, the earth), superlatives (the best), ordinals (the first), rivers, oceans, mountain ranges, holy books, newspapers (the Ganga, the Himalayas, the Gita, the Hindu), and nationalities (the Indians).
- No article before proper nouns, languages, subjects, meals, and abstract/uncountable nouns used generally: Honesty is the best policy. We had lunch.
Quantifiers — the High-Scoring Pairs
| Determiner | Used with | Meaning | Example |
|---|
| much | uncountable | a large amount | We don't have much time. |
| many | countable plural | a large number | Many roads were blocked. |
| little | uncountable | hardly any (negative) | There is little hope of recovery. |
| a little | uncountable | some, at least a bit (positive) | There is a little milk left; make tea. |
| few | countable plural | hardly any (negative) | Few people attended the meeting. |
| a few | countable plural | some (positive) | I have a few good friends. |
| some | both | affirmative sentences, offers | Give me some water. Would you like some tea? |
| any | both | negatives and questions | Is there any sugar? There isn't any. |
Distributives
- Each — two or more things taken individually: Each of the five boys got a medal.
- Every — a group of three or more taken as a whole: Every citizen must vote.
- Either — one of two: You may sit on either side.
- Neither — none of two: Neither answer is correct.
- All four take a singular noun and singular verb.
Common Errors
| Wrong | Right | Reason |
|---|
| She gave me an useful advice. | She gave me a useful piece of advice. | "University/useful" begin with a consonant sound; advice is uncountable. |
| I have much friends. | I have many friends. | Friends is countable. |
| The honesty is a virtue. | Honesty is a virtue. | No article before abstract nouns used generally. |
| He is a M.L.A. | He is an M.L.A. | "M" begins with the vowel sound /em/. |
| Each students were present. | Each student was present. | Each + singular noun + singular verb. |
| There isn't some milk in the jug. | There isn't any milk in the jug. | Any in negatives. |
| Little knowledge I have helps me. | The little knowledge I have helps me. | The little = whatever small amount exists. |
Exam Tip: Determiners are a favourite in the CBSE gap-filling MCQ ("Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option") and the editing/error-correction item. Quick tests: Is the noun countable or uncountable? (→ many/few vs much/little). Is the sentence negative or a question? (→ any, not some). Is the tone positive or negative? (→ a few/a little vs few/little). Does the next word start with a vowel sound, not just a vowel letter? (→ an hour, but a university). These four checks answer nearly every determiner question in the paper.