Determiners

Determiners are words that modify or give more information about nouns. They determine or establish exactly what is being referred to. Whereas adjectives (another type of modifier) describe nouns, determiners identify them. For example, in the phrase “my red ball,” my is the determiner and red is the adjective. The noun, ball, is called the referent. It is what my and red refer to.

It does not matter who is talking about the ball, it does not change color. It stays red. However, someone addressing the owner of the ball would refer to “your ball”. Similarly, this and that are called demonstrative determiners. They show how near an object is to the speaker. “This ball” shows that the speaker is holding the ball or that it is close by. “That ball” shows that it is not. This helps us to understand that adjectives don’t change, but determiners can.

My is called a possessive determiner, as it indicates that the referent, the ball, is possessed or owned. Possessive determiners are not pronouns. Pronouns replace nouns. Possessive determiners don’t replace nouns but modify them. You must always have the noun in the sentence with the determiner.

For more on pronouns, go to this link: 

https://englishlanguagesimplyexplained.blogspot.com/2016/09/pronouns.html

Other possessive determiners are our, your, his, her, their and its. Whose is used before the noun to ask who something belongs to: “Whose ball is this?”

Whose, what and which are interrogative determiners. See “What or Which” below for the difference between these two words.

Be careful to use it’s only as a shorter way to write it is or it has. It’s does not mean belonging to it. Similarly, hers, not her’s, means belonging to her.

It’s getting late. Put the dog in its kennel.

You can also indicate possession by ending a noun with an apostrophe or with an apostrophe + s (‘s).

The rules are:

If the noun is singular, add an apostrophe + s (‘s) to show possession.

Jane’s computer.

The queen’s consort. 

Today’s date.

If the noun is plural and ends with an “s”, add an apostrophe to show possession.

The boys’ changing room.  (More than one boy)

The lions’ cage. (More than one lion)

If the noun is plural but does not end with an “s”, add an apostrophe + s (‘s) to show possession.

The men’s department. 

Children’s books. 

If a name ends with an “s”, usually an apostrophe + s (‘s) is added to show possession, but sometimes just an apostrophe is added.

Bridget Jones’s Diary. 

St James’ Park.  (Home ground for Newcastle United Football Club)

St James’s Park. (Royal park in London, England)

(Note the difference above between James' and James's)

Definite and Indefinite Article

Two of the most common determiners are the and a. The is called the definite article, because it refers to a clearly defined or specific thing, and a is called the indefinite article, as it refers to something general, not specified or identified.

The is used when something has been previously identified, when more then one thing is being referred to or when something is unique:

“A dog is behind you.” (The dog is new to the speaker and the listener.)
“The dog is behind you.” (The dog was previously identified and mentioned.)

A star.

The stars.

A sun.

The sun. (The sun is unique, there is only one)

A or An?

An is used instead of a before words that begin with a vowel sound. Some people think that the rule is: an is used before words that begin with a vowel, but that is not strictly true. There are some words that begin with a vowel but don’t begin with a vowel sound, and there are some words that begin with a consonant but do begin with a vowel sound.

A one-way street. 

A united front. 

An hour.

To understand the rule, try saying “a apple” out loud. Notice how you have to pause slightly between each word. It’s much easier to say “an apple”. Now say “a one” or “a united” and notice how you don’t need to pause between each word. The mouth goes naturally from a to the “w” sound of one, or to the “y” sound of united.

In the case of initialisms (an abbreviation where each letter is pronounced separately, e.g. BBC, CD, HTML), consider whether or not the first letter is pronounced with a vowel sound. For example, the letter h is pronounced “aitch”.

An HTML programmer.

A UFO.

An MP’s position. 

(As mentioned earlier, the apostrophe + s (‘s) is used to indicate possession. The position belongs to the MP. If you want to indicate more than one MP, add an s without the apostrophe.)

“Several MPs were removed from office for misconduct.”

                                                                                                     A or An?

What or Which?

Note the change from what to which in the following conversation:

“What can I get you?”
“I’d like a coffee, please.”
“We have cappuccino, espresso and filter coffee. Which one would you like?”

We learn from the above that which is used when there is a limited choice presented. In this example, what and which are interrogative pronouns. Determiners always precede the noun.

Which coffee would you like?