Posts Tagged ‘determiner’

More on Determiners

April 10th, 2010 in English Grammar, English Learning

Determiners are words like a, the, my, this, some, either, every,enough etc.
Note that determiners are not adjectives even though they come at the
beginning of noun phrases.

The earth
My sister
Either solution
Each boy
Every week
This month

There are two main groups of determiners.

Group A determiners
Group A determiners help to identify things. Examples are:
Articles: a/an, the
Possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their, one’s, whose
Demonstratives: this, these, that, those

Note that two Group A determiners cannot be put together. We can say the
cat, my cat or this cat, but not the my cat, or my this cat.

In order to put together the meanings of two Group A determiners, we have to use the structure a/this…of mine/yours etc.

Examples are:
This car of mine
That cat of yours
This house of his

Group B determiners
Most Group B determiners are quantifiers. Examples are:

Some, any, no
Each, every, either, neither
Much,many, more, most; a little, less, least; a few, fewer, fewest;
enough,several
All, both, half
What, whatever, which, whichever
One, two, three etc.

Some group B determiners are used with singular nouns. Examples are: each,
every, either, neither etc.
Some Group B determiners are used with plural nouns. Examples are: many
Some are used with uncountable nouns. Examples are: much
There are also some Group B determiners which can be used with more than
one kind of noun. Example: which

Two Group B determiners can be put together if the combination makes sense.

Examples are:

Buses leave every ten minutes.
Have you got any more rice?

Notes
Group B determiners can be used directly before nouns, without of.

Has he got any friends? (NOT Has he got any of friends.)
Most people like babies. (NOT Most of people like babies.)

But note that if we want to put a Group B determiner before a noun with a
group A determiner (article, demonstrative or possessive), we have to use
of.

Compare:

Each child was given a prize.
Each of my children was given a prize.

Neither answer is correct.
Neither of these answers is correct.

All my friends live abroad.
All of my friends live abroad.