Articles and Determiners

ARTICLES AND DETERMINERS

Articles, determiners, and quantifiers are those little words that precede and modify nouns.

General and Specific Determiners

General determiners:

• a; an; any; another; other; what

Example sentences: 

A man climbing nearby saw the accident.

With a full licence you are allowed to drive any car.

Specific determiners:

• The definite  article: the

A definite article indicates that its noun is a particular one which is identifiable to the listener. It may be something that the speaker has already mentioned, or it may be something uniquely specified. The definite article in English, for both singular and plural nouns, is the.

Example: The children know the fastest way home.

• Possessives: my, your, his, her, its; our, their, whose

Possessive determiners constitute a sub-class of determiners which modify a noun by attributing possession (or other sense of belonging) to someone or something. They are also known as possessive adjectives, although the latter term is sometimes used with a wider meaning.

Example: Thank you very much for your letter.

                 Whose coat is this?

• Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Demonstratives are words like this and that, used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. 

Example: Look at those lovely flowers.

• Quantifiers: all, some, many, few, little , a lot, and no

Quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns.They tell us how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier depends on your understanding the distinction between count and non-count nouns. 

Example of Count nouns:

many trees                                few trees                         several trees

Example of Non-count Nouns:

no honey                                little  honey

Both count and non-count nouns:

Every glass in my recent order was chipped.
Some of the people standing across the river have white armbands.
Most of the people I talked to didn't have a clue who the candidates were.
A lot of people are smart.

• Interrogatives: which, what

Interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question.

Example:What toppings do you want for your frozen yogurt?

                Which school do you prefer?