DETERMINERS

Words or phrases often determine something about the nouns without describing them is called determiners. 

Moreover, in most of the cases determiners always come before adjectives.

White   clouds   are floating in the sky.

A   mass meeting was held in our locality.

The words ‘the’ & ‘a’ therefore are determining something about the nouns without describing them.

Determiners fall broadly under the following categories :

1.      Articles  : a, an,  the

2.     Demonstrative pronouns & adjectives : this, these, that, those

3.   Adjectives & pronouns of indefinite number and quantity :     all, another, any, both, certain,each,either,enough,every,few ,half, little, less, least, many, more, most ,much, neither, no other, own, plenty, some,  severely, such, only, a lot of, various, whole……...

4.     Numerals: Cardinals – one, two, three…………….

                   Ordinals -   1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th……………...

5.     Possessives:   my-mine, our-ours, their-theirs, his-hers, one’s………….

6.     Wh-words  :  what, which, whose

7.      A determiner may be adjectival in use:  This book is mine.  Our house is big.  

8.      A determiner may be pronominal in use: That book is ours.  This is my book.

9.     A determiner may identify a person or a persons or a thing or things : I know this boy .Some students are coming  . These are their car.  

10.     A countable noun should almost always have a determiner : a book, a pen, an egg

11.      An un countable noun can be used with or without a determiner :

Tea grows in India.                      I like the tea of Darjeeling.   

SUMIT CHATTERJEE