Determiners

Determiner (noun): a word like the, an, this or some that comes at the beginning of a noun phrase

These pages explain the grammar and usage of determiners, with example sentences.

• What is a Determiner?

Determiners are one of the nine parts of speech. They are words like the, an, this, some, either, my or whose. All determiners share some grammatical similarities:

• Determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, before adjectives.
• Determiners limit or "determine" a noun phrase in some way.
• Many determiners are "mutually-exclusive": we cannot have more than one of them in the same noun phrase.
• If we do have more than one determiner, they go in a very specific order.

Look at these example noun phrases. The first word in each noun phrase is a determiner:

• the dog
• those people
• some brown rice
• either side of the road
• seven pink elephants
• your oldest child
• which car

Some grammarians do not give determiners a word class of their own, but treat them as adjectives.

Main Determiners

These are the main determiners. There can be only ONE main determiner in a noun phrase (for more about this, see order of determiners):

• Article

Definite Article and Indefinite Article

a/an, the

The determiners a/an and the are called "articles". They are the most common of all determiners. They come at the very beginning of a noun phrase. We divide them into "indefinite" and "definite" like this:

	indefinite articles	definite article
	a/an	the
use with	singular countable nouns only	all nouns
use for	a non-specific person or thing (singular)	specific people or things (singular or plural)

We use indefinite to mean non-specific. Indefinite is general. We use definite to mean specific. Definite is particular. When we are talking about something in general, we use a or an. When we are talking about something in particular, we use the.

See also:

• When to Say a or an
• How to Pronounce the

Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see MILLIONS of stars and ONE moon. So normally we would say:

• I saw a star last night.
• I saw the moon last night.

Look at some more examples:

a/an	the
I was born in a town. John had an omelette for lunch. James Bond ordered a drink. We want to buy an umbrella. Have you got a pen?	The capital of France is Paris. I have found the book that I lost. Have you cleaned the car? There are six eggs in the fridge. Please switch off the TV when you finish.

Of course, often we can use a/an or the for the same word. It depends on the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

• We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.)
• It's raining! Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

This little story should help you understand the difference between a/an and the:

A man and a woman were walking in Oxford Street. The woman saw a dress that she liked in a shop. She asked the man if he could buy the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop will accept a cheque? I don't have a credit card."

Articles with Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Notice that we use the indefinite article a/an ONLY with singular countable nouns: a dog, an egg, a very big man, an extremely delicious meal

By contrast, we can use the definite article the with ALL nouns: the dog, the eggs, the big men, the music, the food, the red wine

It is sometimes also possible to have no article at all—the so-called ZERO article. This can happen with all nouns (but normally not singular countable nouns): dogs, eggs, hot meals, music, red wine

The following table shows how we usually use articles with countable and uncountable nouns, but see EnglishClub Tip below for more about this.

		a/an	the	ZERO
countable	singular	a dog	the dog	dog
	plural	a dogs	the dogs	dogs
uncountable		a music	the music	music

In English, a singular countable noun usually needs an article (or other determiner) in front of it. We cannot say:

• I saw elephant yesterday.

We need to say something like:

• I saw an elephant.
• I saw a pink elephant.
• I saw the elephant.
• I saw your elephant.

But see ZERO Article for cases when no article or other determiner is needed.

• Demonstrative Determiners

this/that, these/those

The demonstrative determiners this/that, these/those point to something that is close or distant. The closeness can be in:

• space (next to the speaker, 20 metres from the speaker, 1000km from the speaker)
• time (now, yesterday, last week, next year)

	near	far
singular	this	that
plural	these	those

Like all determiners, demonstrative determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, so they come in front of any adjective(s).

Look at these example sentences:

• I like this food.
• I use these pens.
• I have to do it this morning.
• We don't meet these days.
• Look at that big cloud.
• Can you see those birds?
• Do you remember that man we met last week?
• Those days on holiday were enjoyable.

• Possessive Determiners

my, your, his, her, its, our, their

We use possessive determiners to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive determiners are:

• my, your, his, her, its, our, their

Warning! These are determiners. Don't confuse them with possessive pronouns.

Like all determiners, possessive determiners come at the beginning of a noun phrase, so they come in front of any adjective(s).

Look at these example sentences:

possessive determiner with gender (Male, Female, Neuter)		example sentence
SINGULAR
my	M/F	This is my book.
his	M	His name is John.
her	F	Her first name is Mary.
its	N	The dog licked its wounded paw.
PLURAL
our	M/F	We have sold our house.
their	M/F/N	The students thanked their Thai teacher.
SINGULAR or PLURAL
your	M/F	I like your hair. Your two children are lovely.

Be careful with these three possessive determiners:

possessive determiner	contraction (sounds the same)
1. your: This is your book.	you're (you are): Hurry up! You're late!
2. its: The dog licked its paw.	it's (it is/it has): It's coming. (It is coming...) It's arrived. (It has arrived...)
3. their: Which is their house?	they're (they are): They're waiting. (They are waiting...)Also note there as an adverb: I'm not going there.

Be careful! There is NO apostrophe (') in the possessive determiner its. We use an apostrophe to write the contraction of "it is" or "it has". For example:

it is raining → it's raining

it has finished → it's finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/determiner-what.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/determiners-articles.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/determiners-demonstrative.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/determiners-possessive.htm