Determiners: those silly little words that are so hard to define and, if English is not your first language in particular, can be so difficult to use correctly. Determiners are technically adjectives, but they contain so much hard-to-describe information they are often discussed as a class of words themselves
Determiners are a class of words that precede nouns and can indicate many things:
- Whether the noun being introduced is a general noun (“A dog was barking”—which dog? Just “a” dog. Any old dog.) or if the noun being introduced refers to a specific incarnation of that noun (“The dog was barking”—which dog? The specific dog we both know we are talking about.).
- Whether the noun being introduced is singular (“Each person wanted that cookie” or plural “All the children wanted some cookies”)
- Whether the noun being introduced is at hand or at a distance (“These buttons [close] go on those shirts [far]”)
- Whether the noun being introduced is owned or possessed (“My fears and his dreams were realized.”)
- Whether the noun being introduced does or does not exist (“He want to know what question had no answer.”).
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Types of determiners |
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Occurs with singular count nouns |
Occurs with plural count nouns |
Occurs with noncount* nouns |
| TYPE 1 |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| themy, his, her, etc.
no any what, which
|
the dogmy dog
any dog what dog
|
the dogsmy dogs
any dogs what dogs |
the milkmy milk
any milk what milk |
| TYPE 2 |
no |
yes |
Yes |
| no determinersome
enough
|
dog some dog enough dog |
dogs some dogs enough dogs |
milk some milk enough milk |
| TYPE 3 |
yes |
no |
Yes |
| this, that | this dog, that dog | this dogs, that dogs | this milk, that milk |
| TYPE 4 |
no |
yes |
No |
| these, those | these dog, those dog | these dogs, those dogs | these milk, those milk |
| TYPE 5 |
yes |
no |
No |
| a(n) each, every (n)either |
a dog, an eagleeach dog, every dog
either dog |
a dogs, an eagleseach dogs, every dogs
neither dogs |
a milk each milk, every milk either milk |
*a noncount count is a noun that is both singular and plural at once (for example, furniture or milk); noncount nouns do not require a determiner: “We like milk” is allowed, but “We like dog” is not.