Introduction

What are determiners?

Determiners are words that come at the beginning of noun phrases, before any adjectives. They mostly show which or how much/many we are talking about.

• the manager
• this house
• every week
• a nice day
• some problems
• enough oil
• my fat old cat
• either arm
• several young students

They fall into two main groups from a grammatical point of view.

1. Articles (a/an and the), possessives (my, your, etc) and demonstratives (this, that, etc).
   These help to show which members or which part of a class or category we are talking about. Possessives and demonstratives are called ‘adjectives’ in older grammars and dictionaries, but they are quite different from adjectives.

2. Quantifiers (e.g. all, some, each, much, most, several) and one or two others.
   These mostly show how much or how many we are talking about.
   The first group are covered in this Section, and the others in Determiners: quantifiers.

Articles

Article use is one of the most difficult points in English grammar, particularly for learners whose languages do not have article systems. Articles are difficult for several reasons:

• The two articles (and the use of no article or ‘zero article’) express several different meanings, and it is not always possible to draw clear lines between them.
• These meanings are relatively abstract and not easy to explain.
• Languages which have articles (e.g. French, Swedish, Portuguese) do not always use them in the same way as their English equivalents, especially when talking about things in general (see here).
• Sometimes article use is more a matter of vocabulary than grammar: we happen to use the in one expression, and a or no article in another similar expression, for no very good reason.
  • on the radio
  • on TV
  • I’ve got backache. (BrE)
  • I’ve got a headache.
  • We took a wrong turning and went to the wrong address.

However, much article use is regular; and the explanations in the following entries should help a good deal. Also, article mistakes do not usually matter very much for practical purposes: they rarely cause misunderstandings.

Possessives: terminology

There are problems of terminology with possessives. My, your, etc (see here) are sometimes called ‘possessive adjectives’, while mine, yours, etc (see here) are generally called ‘possessive pronouns’. In fact, both types of possessive are pronouns, because they stand for noun phrases. My replaces the noun phrase the speaker’s; mine replaces the more complex noun phrase the speaker’s possession. The real difference is that my, etc function as determiners in noun phrases while mine, etc are free-standing, used instead of noun phrases. None of this matters much from a practical point of view: the important thing is to use possessives correctly, not to worry about what they are called.

Do you know what’s wrong with these, and why?

Give it to cat. (see here)

You shouldn’t go out without coat. (see here)

Annie is engineer. (see here) c

I used my shoe as hammer. (see here) c

My uncle used to be a MP. (see here)

The life is complicated. (see here)

The most birds can fly. (see here)

It’s not always easy to fit in with the society. (see here)

She’s very interested in the nature. (see here)

Lying by the road we saw a wheel of a car. (see here)

He’s a wrong man for me. (see here)

The America’s economic problems are becoming serious. (see here)

I was surprised at the amount of the money collected. (see here)

They appointed him the Head Librarian. (see here)

What lovely dress! (see here)

What a nonsense! (see here)

Katy broke the arm climbing. (see here)

They’re walking in Himalayas. (see here)

She studied at the Oxford University. (see here)

Granny’s lost the her keys again. (see here)

The teacher told the children to open their book. (see here)

He stood there, the eyes closed and the hands in the pockets. (see here)

The dog’s in a good mood. Its just had it’s breakfast. (see here)

I don’t know what I’m doing in that country. (see here)

Have you ever heard from this Scottish boy you used to go out with? (see here)